Friday: Ongoing reliability issues for Caterham F1
If the first practice session of the German Grand Prix went well for the Caterham drivers, it was not the case during FP2 as Marcus Ericsson suffered an oil pressure problem and Kamui Kobayashi experienced the start of a fire, but both men remain satisfied with their tests.
Marcus Ericsson (No. 9) – 21st and 20th
The Swede was not as performant as his teammate during the first session but is still satisfied: I had different settings from Kamui during FP1 and I have to say that the overall balance was good right from the first stint. I was losing a lot of time in the last sector because the car went from oversteer to understeer, but we improved the aero balance and mechanical settings, and by the end, it was more consistent.
Ericsson managed to cover 56 laps – there will be 67 to do on Sunday – during the two sessions, despite a problem during FP2, and he is pleased with the progress made by the CT03: « During FP2, I went out immediately and was on my second lap when I was told there was an oil pressure problem and I had to stop the car. I quickly returned to the pits, as did my car, and the guys did a great job getting me back out with 35 minutes left in the session. […] Obviously, we would have liked to do more laps but overall the car seems to have improved since Silverstone. »
Kamui Kobayashi (No.10) – 19th and 21st
The Japanese driver had a good start to the weekend and is pleased with it: « The FP1 session was a good one for me, much better than in recent races, and with good reliability, we were able to complete the planned program. The car had too much understeer so we tried different settings to help fix that, but it was much better by the end of the session. »
But not everything went as well for Kobayashi during the second session, quickly having to stop due to a fire starting on his Caterham: « In FP2, we went out early for our first stint and completed 10 laps. The balance of the car was much better with the changes made at noon, but I immediately felt that we were lacking power, it was strange. We made a few mechanical adjustments and went out again for the second stint, but at the end of the second lap, I lost my braking power and could smell burning. I stopped at turn 16 because there was a fire starting at the back of the car. »
