Sunday: Charles Pic and Caterham leave China full of optimism
While he managed to hold his own against Jules Bianchi's Marussia for much of the race, Charles Pic had to settle for 16th place behind his compatriot, yet the race was still a source of satisfaction for the Frenchman. Despite finishing 18th after a tough race, Giedo van der Garde is also striving to stay optimistic for Bahrain.
Charles Pic – 16th
« For me, it was a good race, almost as good as we could have hoped for given our current performances, and we used a good race strategy.
The car seemed good right from the start: the setup choices we made worked well, and I had a decent start on the soft tires, coming in just as they began to degrade significantly. I came out ahead of Jules Bianchi and, for two-thirds of the race, I held a comfortable fifteenth position. Unfortunately, during my third stop, I rejoined in 16th position and didn’t have enough performance to fight [with Bianchi, ed.], so I finished in that place. However, the fact that we were able to keep up with Marussia’s pace throughout the race and were within reach of Williams at certain moments is very encouraging for the future.
Now, we will go directly to Bahrain where we hope things will start to get interesting.
Giedo van der Garde – 18th:
« It wasn’t really a good race for me. I got off to a very solid start again, passing three cars, but as soon as the first set of soft tires started to collapse, I couldn’t find any rhythm and struggled throughout the race.
After a good Friday, it was a rather difficult weekend for me, but I am a positive person, it’s part of the learning process I expected to follow at the start of the season, and I know the team is by my side to help me improve.
We immediately have the chance to replicate the type of performance we want to have in Bahrain, so we’ll see what lessons we can learn after today and approach the next race where I’m sure things will improve.
