The 2013 season saw the Caterham team slip to eleventh place in the Constructors Championship behind their rivals Marussia. Even though during the second half of the 2013 season, their former drivers Gideo Van der Garde and Charles Pic (more so Van der Garde) performed better, the thirteenth place of Jules Bianchi in the Malaysian Grand Prix was enough to take away tenth place from the Caterham team in the Constructors.
This is was all the motivation that Caterham needed to ensure that the 2014 season was the year that Caterham gained back tenth in the Constructors and wanting to fight in the midfield for their first points in Formula One with former Caterham Team Owner Tony Fernandez stating that this must be their aim in what he termed as a “very important year for the team.”
In order for Caterham to achieve this aim, they signed former Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi who brings not just money raised with him in order to gain the drive, but also many years experience he has gained in his career in the sport. To partner Kobayashi, Caterham signed rookie driver Marcus Ericsson who was promoted from GP2 after driving for the DAMS team.
However, the 2014 season has been appalling for Caterham. Even during pre-season testing, it was clear that the CT05 was going to be a handful of a car for Kobayashi and Ericsson to drive with the CT05 plagued with Renault power unit issues and also reliability failures and this has continued throughout the course of the season. It is clear that the Caterham simply just haven’t build a car that is good enough and is lacking the pace and the downforce to even challenge their rivals Marussia (who scored their first points in Formula One with Jules Bianchi finishing ninth at the Monaco Grand Prix) and despite bringing improvements to the car, they simply haven’t worked and stayed at the back of the grid.
The only saving grace for the team this season was Ericsson at the Monaco Grand Prix finishing outside of the points in eleventh place after a great drive from the rookie and I feel that was their best chance of scoring their first points in Formula One and closing the gap to their rivals Marussia.
Alongside this, speculation surrounding the future of the Caterham team was forever lurking around them. It was announced last month that former owner Fernandez has sold the team to a group of Swiss and Middle Eastern investors with former Formula One driver Christijan Albers as Team Principal and former Formula One Team Principal Colin Kolles acting as an advisor.
With the legal threat also of the team being sued by former employees after they were forced to resign from their jobs to “secure the future of the team”, it is clear that Caterham does not appear to have their future in the sport secured as it should be. Even though we do not know much about the Caterham team’s new management and owners, it is clear that Caterham have simply got to push every available resource at their disposal at trying to salvage something from this season.
It was also announced last month that the new owners and management have signed off and have provided upgrades for the team in order to improve their performance from the second half of the season at the first race back in Spa. But will this make any difference to the Caterham team?
Marcus Ericsson 0 points/ 18th in the Driver’s Championship
So far in 2014, Ericsson has so far shown the performances that many expected of him as a rookie driver in his first season in the sport. Even though it is to be expected that Ericsson would make mistakes along the way in his debut year in the sport, he has been out-qualified by Kobayashi 8 times to 2 times, he also hasn’t been able to finish races either with Kobayashi beating him 7 times to 3 times.
I should point out Ericsson has had a lot of bad luck this season so far. At the first race in Australia, Ericsson also did not have the best race to kick start in career with the Caterham team and suffered a mechanical failure that forced him to retire from the race.
He also suffered mechanical failures at the Bahrain and Canadian Grand Prix and suffered a suspension failure on the CT05 that forced him to retire at the British Grand Prix. In the last race at Hungary, Ericsson made a mistake by pushing too hard and carrying too much in the mixed conditions at the early stages of the race that he made contact with the tyre barriers and had to retire from the race.
But I should also mention that Ericsson has had more than his fair share of crashes and spins during race weekends, with Silverstone springing to my mind where he spun out of qualifying during a wet weather session that caught out many drivers along the way.
However, Ericsson has given the Caterham team its best finish in a Grand Prix. At the Monaco Grand Prix, Ericsson finished in eleventh place and just out of the points compared to Kobayashi’s best race finish for the Caterham team is thirteenth place finishes in the Malaysian and Monaco Grand Prix.
Even though Ericsson has achieved the best finish for the Caterham team, it is clear that he has been unable to out-qualify and out-race his more experienced team mate Kobayashi as to be expected. During the season, Ericsson has shown that his inexperience, failing to get to grips with the car, making classic “rookie” mistakes or suffering from reliability or mechanical issues has not been able to show what he can do in the CT05 and his best average race position of 19th place only highlights and reflects what he has been able to achieve halfway through his first year in the sport with the Caterham team in the least competitive car on the grid.
Kamui Kobyashi 0 points / 22nd in Driver’s Championship
So far in 2014, Kobayashi has been the only consistent driver for Caterham and has brought the car home for them even if the car is the least competitive car on the grid. Even though it is to be expected that Kobayashi would out-qualify this rookie team by 8 times to 2 times, he has also finished more races than Ericsson by 7 times to 3 times, showing that consistency is the key to beating your team-mate on a regular basis.
At the first race in Australia, Kobayashi did not have the best race to kick start in career with the Caterham team by suffering a brake failure while turning into Turn 1. This then saw him collect the Williams of Felipe Massa and caused both drivers into retirement. In the Spanish Grand Prix, Kobayashi was forced to retire from the race with brake issues, at the Canadian Grand Prix, Kobayashi retired with suspension issues and finally at Hungarian Grand Prix, he was forced to retire with a fuel problem on the CT05.
However, Kobayashi has not given the Caterham team its best race finish so far this season. Kobayashi’s best race finish for the Caterham team is thirteenth place finishes in the Malaysian and Monaco Grand Prix compared to Ericsson who finished in eleventh place at Monaco, just out of the points.
Even though Ericsson has achieved the best finish for the Caterham team, it is clear that Kobayashi consistently and regularly has out shone his rookie team mate and is showing that all the experience he has gained from his time in the sport is helping him extract pace and performance from the car and bring it home in the best average position of 14th place with the CT05 so far this season.
Race Results so far this season:-
| AUS | MAL | BAH | CHI | SPA | MON | CAN | AUS | BRI | GER | HUN | |
| Marcus Ericsson | DNF | 14 | DNF | 20 | 20 | 11 | DNF | 18 | DNF | 18 | DNF |
| Kamui Kobayashi | DNF | 13 | 15 | 18 | DNF | 13 | DNF | 16 | 15 | 16 | DNF |
Performances Comparison so far this season:-
| Marcus Ericsson | Kamui Kobayashi | |
| Qualified ahead | 2 | 8 |
| Average qualifying gap | -0.749s | +0.749s |
| Finished race ahead | 1 | 9 |
| Laps spent ahead | 66 | 341 |
Looking ahead for the rest of the season, the Caterham team need to ensure that they can bring everything that they can to in order to improve their performances and close the gap to their rivals Marussia in order to try and battle for tenth place in the Constructors Championship. With the new owners and management agreeing to bring upgrades to the next race in Spa, it is imperative that these upgrades work as efficiently as possible and show a significant step and improvement on the track. Personally, I do believe that if Caterham do not develop their car as much as they possibly can with the resources that they have (I believe the lack of funds in their budget will prevent this), then Caterham will still be in the position where they are currently and their future in Formula One could be very shaky for them indeed.
It is now time for the Caterham team to fight for tenth in the Constructors Championship and to fight with everything that they have for the remainder of the season.
