Friday: Caterham struggling with its hybrid V6 turbo
The owner has changed, but the problems remain for Caterham F1. The cars of Robin Frijns and Marcus Ericsson fell victim to their power unit, which did not allow them to deliver normal sessions.
Marcus Ericsson (No. 9) – 19th and 22nd
The Swedish driver also experienced his share of misfortunes. His Power Unit lost power, which forced him to give up valuable laps: « In the afternoon, we started with a car that felt like it might have gone in the wrong direction in terms of settings. So, we made some changes at the end of the first stint, and it was really better for the second stint. We then put on the medium tires, and they were working quite well – there was more grip, and the tires were heating up faster. But then, during the third run, I had a mechanical problem that caused me to lose power, and I had to pull into the old pits area. We need to know what really happened, to study the data tonight, and then aim for better tomorrow for the qualifications and the race. »
Robin Frijns – 20th [FP1]
The test driver of the team, spotlighted on Friday morning, had his session cut short by his Power Unit. But he fortunately managed to do about ten laps in the last quarter-hour: I did the installation lap and, apart from a few very minor issues with the radio, there were no problems with the car. However, during the checks following the installation lap, we found an electrical issue that caused a bug in the Power Unit. We had to ground the car to fix it, but the guys did a great job and with 15 minutes left in the session, I was back for an uneventful run.
Kamui Kobayashi (No. 10) – 20th [FP2]
The Japanese driver only had one session today, and he was lucky not to have it hindered by another issue. He seems quite satisfied with the progress made in the afternoon: « Overall, the balance wasn’t too bad at the start of the second session – the car was moving around a lot and there was too much understeer, particularly in high-speed corners; but by the end of the session, there was progress. We did two stints with the hard tires, and then with the mediums to gauge these less hard compounds for the first time, and it was really better, both in short and long stints. So that’s quite positive for the rest of the weekend ».
