Giedo van der Garde.Net

Canadian GP preview quotes: Giedo

2013-06-01T10:33:00.000+02:00

Giedo van der Garde: "Next up it's Canada, a track I've never raced at but one I went to last year with Caterham as Reserve Driver. I sat in on all the briefings and debriefs last year so I have quite a bit of information about what it's going to be like from 2012, and I've spent quite a bit of time on my sim at home trying the track, but you obviously don't really know what it's like until you drive around it, but it will only take a couple of laps to get used to it.

"What I do remember from last year was how hardcore the fans are in Montreal! We have a couple of big North American sponsors, so the team had a lot of guests in the paddock and in the grandstands, but I remember that from early on Thursday morning the whole place was packed! In the city itself it was the same - there's one street where the whole place is shut down for the race weekend and we had a team dinner there on the Saturday night. It was a fantastic atmosphere, a lot like it is at home in Holland for big sports events, so I felt really comfortable there and am excited about getting back, this time to race!

"On track I think it'll be interesting to see where we are after Monaco. I was glad to bring the car home, but after the best Saturday of the year so far we obviously wanted to finish higher up. Even with that, there were some good signs in the race that we are making decent progress. Personally, for me it was another step in the learning curve, and for the team in general we saw that we'd fixed the rear wing issue we'd found in Barcelona, and had enough pace to get the car into Q2 and to record one of the fastest laps in the race in the early stages. Montreal is a medium to low downforce track and with the constant updates we're making to the package we took to Spain, I think we could be ok."

Autosport

Early woes hit Caterham duo in Monaco

2013-05-27T20:27:00.000+02:00

Caterham F1 had looked set for a strong outing in Monaco as they lined up for the start of Sunday's Grand Prix on the streets of the principality, with Giedo van der Garde having earned a career-best 15th place on the grid and his team mate Charles Pic also up into 18th place, both of them ahead of their back row nemeses from Marussia as well as the out-of-position Ferrari of Felipe Massa.

Unfortunately, all the high hopes and expectations of maybe coming away from Monte Carlo with a point or two soon faded away as troubles hit both drivers early in the race.

"I made a good start from 15th but then [Williams' Pastor] Maldonado hit me, damaging the floor and meaning I had to come straight in for a new nose on lap 1," explained van der Garde of how that hard-earned grid position had been squandered.

"I rejoined in 22nd and at that point, even though I had good pace and was catching the pack up again, it looked like my race was over, especially after losing KERS on lap 10," he admitted. "We were able to reset KERS and then Monaco did what it always does, and when the safety car came out for Massa's crash I was able to unlap myself and get back into the action.

"In the car it felt like I couldn't have any less luck, but then on lap 45 I was with Chilton, Bianchi and Maldonado when they had their incident," he sighed. "I didn't really see what happened between them, but obviously the red flag gave me a chance to start again, this time from 18th.

The intermission proved to be a silver lining for the Dutch driver: "From the restart, on soft tyres and with 28 laps to go, I was holding position in 17th after Chilton's drive-through and then the second safety car came out and I moved up to 14th when a couple of cars ahead pitted," he recalled. "I was right behind [Williams' Valtteri] Bottas, in front of [Sauber's Esteban] Gutiérrez, but unfortunately after 13 laps the tyres were destroyed.

In the end the race came down to a battle over 14th between van der Garde and his Marussia counterpart Max Chilton, and the Caterham just didn't have the edge it needed to hold on. "I had Chilton right behind me and with the tyres in the state they were, I couldn't hold him off so I finished 15th."

That was still a much better day than it had looked early on - and certainly a result that Charles Pic would have been eyeing up enviously, considering his race ended after just seven laps of the Monaco street circuit with the back of his car in flames.

"It looks like the cause of the retirement was a gearbox problem and the fire was from the exhausts which had overheated," the Frenchman explained later. "It looked a lot more dramatic than it felt in the car; I could feel there was a problem and started pulling over and as soon as the car stopped there was a lot of smoke, but it was all out quickly and the marshals did a good job to clear it away without bringing out the safety car.

Crash.net

Saturday in Monte Carlo - Giedo's team quote

2013-05-25T20:08:00.002+02:00

Weather

FP3: Dry, sunny; min / max track temp 28° - 29°, air temp 18°

Q1: Overcast, light rain; track temp 21°, air temp 17°

Q2: Overcast, light rain; track temp 21°, air temp 16°

Fastest laps / positions:

FP3: PIC 1.17.902, 19th / VDG 1.18. 102, 20th

Q1: VDG: 1.26.095, 16th / PIC 1.26.633, 18th

Q2: VDG: 1.19.408, 15th

Total laps:

FP3: PIC 20 / VDG 20

Q1: VDG 13 / PIC 13

Q2: VDG 8

Runplan

Giedo van der Garde, car #21, chassis CT03-04

FP3

1104 - 1116: Run 1, 8 laps (soft tyres)

Changes: front anti-roll bar

1127 - 1138: Run 2, 7 laps (soft tyres) RED FLAG

Changes: front wing flap angle

1152 - 1200: Run 3, 5 laps (supersoft tyres)

1400 - 1415: Run 1, 9 laps (intermediate tyres)

Changes: n/a

1415 - 1421: Run 2, 4 laps (intermediate tyres)

1427 - 1435: Run 1, 3 laps (intermediate tyres)

Changes: front wing flap angle

1435 - 1444: Run 2, 5 laps (supersoft tyres)

Team Quotes

Giedo van der Garde: "I'm obviously very pleased to put my name into the Q2 timesheets for the first time this year and I want to thank Tony, Cyril and the whole team for the jobs everyone did today. Honestly, it's a great feeling, but it's still part of the learning process for me. I've said since the start of the season that I'd make progress, and today showed how far we've all come in just six races, and there's more to come.

"Saturday started pretty well and in FP3 we went out for a long-ish run on the softs straight away but, like Charles, for me the car was understeering a lot. I was having to use throttle to help turn the car so we made a couple of mechanical changes and from then it was a bit better, but the tyres weren't really coming in as much as we'd have liked, so we tried another mechanical change for quali and the results are pretty obvious!

"In Q1 we went out very early as there were reports of more showers coming. As it turned out that wasn't the case, but we timed the stop well and had about four more quick laps on the inters at the end of Q1, enough time to put myself into Q2.

"Q2 started with a bit more rain, so we again went for the inters, but after one lap I thought it was dry enough for slicks so we boxed, went onto the supersofts and was the first car to make the switch. For a while we were looking at Q3, but that's not where we are performance-wise yet, so we're all really happy with Q2.

"Sunday could be very interesting. I start between the two Williams cars of Bottas and Maldonado and I've had good starts all year, so hopefully I can have another good launch, avoid anything like the GP2 mess on Friday, and from there anything's possible. I finished on the podium here last year in GP2 and, while that's not going to happen this year, we will definitely be racing quite a few cars all afternoon."

Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal, Caterham F1 Team: "This is one of the good days, the best so far this year for our team. Personally, I'm proud of the work everyone is doing to give us moments like seeing Giedo's name in Q2. He drove very well, showing how he much he keeps developing and how he's brave enough to be the first driver out there to make the call to go for it on slicks in what were still very tricky conditions on track. Both he and Charles have been driving very well all weekend, minimising the mistakes and pushing when they need to and Charles was unlucky not to join Giedo in Q2. However, he also showed his talent by being right in the mix in Q1 until the flag fell and with the pace and racecraft he's shown all year, particularly in Bahrain and Spain, he'll be right in the action tomorrow.

"This is another small step in our ongoing development, another reason why we are all here working so hard to be part of the show, and I want everyone in our team to use this as another source of motivation for Sunday and the rest of the season. We obviously have the main task ahead of us tomorrow, but days like this are why we're in this sport, and to have our first Q2 of the year when Tony's on track with us makes this a very special day."

CaterhamF1

Monaco GP: Giedo van der Garde says Caterham result 'career high'

2013-05-25T19:58:00.000+02:00

Giedo van der Garde regards qualifying 15th for the Monaco Grand Prix as a career high.

The Dutchman reached Q2 for the first time in Formula 1 as he made Caterham's first appearance in the second stage of qualifying this season.

Even though he has won races in his junior career, as well as the Formula Renault 3.5 title, he believes this achievement is up there with anything else he has achieved.

"Yes, it's a big day for me and the team," van der Garde told AUTOSPORT when asked if this was a career high.

"It was a great day for us and I'm very happy and proud of what we did.

"It's not easy in these conditions, but you have to make the most of them and take what you can get."

Caterham judged the conditions well in Q1, opting to bring van der Garde in for fresh intermediate rubber, which allowed him to improve his time by a big enough margin to end up ahead of Paul di Resta and Esteban Gutierrez.

In Q2, van der Garde gambled on a switch to slicks when everyone else was on intermediates. He climbed as high as fifth at one point before being demoted by faster cars that changed tyres later in the session.

"We played it quite aggressive," he said of the team's strategy.

"I was the first one on slicks and it was my call.

"But at those moments, you have nothing to lose and you have to try to get what you can."

Despite being inside the top 10 in the closing minutes of the session, van der Garde believes that he did the best he could have done and that it was impossible to reach Q3 without the rain returning.

He ended up just over a second-and-a-half off the Q3 cut-off time, but believes that there was no more pace in the car because of the conditions.

"The gap to Q3 was quite big," he said.

"It was still wet at the end of Q2 so it was tough and the car was sliding around a lot."

With the Caterham having shown stronger race pace than qualifying pace so far this weekend, van der Garde is hopeful of a good result in Sunday's race.

"You never know - as we saw in the GP2 race on Friday, anything can happen at into the first turn," he said when asked if he felt scoring a point might be possible.

Autosport

Qualifying: Giedo 15th on the grid - Monaco

2013-05-25T18:11:00.002+02:00

A very very happy Giedo after a great qualifying in Monaco. 15th on the grid!

What a great day.. Very nice to get in to Q2 and happy with p15 ! Caterham F1 Team thanks guys.. And thx to all your positive support! I hope you will enjoy the race tomorrow.

Facebook/Twitter Giedo

Caterham 'messed up' in 2012 - Fernandes

2013-05-25T17:54:00.002+02:00

Caterham owner Tony Fernandes has admitted his team "messed up" last year in the pursuit of extra performance from its exhaust blown diffuser.

The team is now in its fourth year in Formula One but is still rooted to the bottom of the grid alongside Marussia, which also joined the sport in 2010. Fernandes said his outfit had been overambitious last year when John Iley joined as head of aerodynamics and the team tried to gain extra aerodynamic performance from the exhaust.

"Last year was a real disappointment and I thought by this year we would definitely be in the midfield - if we hadn't have messed up last year, we could have been," he said in Monaco on Friday. "When John Iley came over to us last year we tried to be a bit too clever with the blown diffuser and it screwed us up. If we had just continued on our normal path we probably would have been in the midfield by now so we've learned the hard way."

Fernandes said the team is now making progress and is going in the right direction ahead of a change in the engine regulations in 2014.

"Every week we are getting significant [downforce] points in the wind tunnel, as opposed to what was not very aggressive growth over the first two years. I also think we have got the right people now, but would I say we are 100% where we want to be? No.

"We have a nice facility in Leafield and we're going in the right direction. I'm not saying we are going to be world champions any time soon, but I do believe if we continue this way then we have a good chance of progressing."

Fernandes has now stepped aside as team principal but insisted he is still committed to the team and the Caterham brand, which is currently developing a road car with engine partners Renault.

ESPNF1

Van der Garde seeks to secure F1 future

2013-05-20T19:44:00.000+02:00

Giedo van der Garde admits that his focus for the remainder of the 2013 F1 season is to ensure he retains his position on the grid for next year – when fresh regulations are introduced in the sport.

The Dutch driver finally secured a role on the grid this year with Caterham and has a best finish of 15th after the opening five races of the campaign.

As has been the case in recent years, Caterham has yet to show signs of fighting for a place in the points-scoring positions, with the Leafield-based squad instead hoping that the new rules next year – when the sport switches to 1.6 litre turbo-charged engines – will be the catalyst that allows it to make progress up the order.

With that in mind, van der Garde admitted that he hoped to do enough this season to ensure he gets the chance to return next year to try and help his current team move forwards.

"Of course, in 2014 it's going to be a very interesting year for everybody,” he told ESPN. "So we have to try to learn as much as possible from the team and what they're doing now in the wind tunnel to gather as much data as possible.

“Of course they have to push hard for next year because the change in the car is so big that you can have it on the right spot or not. So this is up to the team and I think they're pushing hard for it."

Crash.net

Van der Garde believes there is room for improvement

2013-05-19T20:58:00.001+02:00

Giedo van der Garde believes that Caterham still has room for improvement despite surpassing Marussia in the last couple of races to move off the back of the grid.

The battle at the back has been intense of late, with Marussia’s charge being led by Jules Bianchi and the Anglo-Russian team appeared to have the upper hand following the opening three races of the season. However, a rejuvenated Caterham has enjoyed a healthy lead over Marussia in the past two races, but van der Garde believes that there is still scope for improvement.

“There is still some scope, absolutely, so we have to see what we have to do and how we can fix it because at the moment it is not there completely,” van der Garde explained to ESPNF1.

“I think to be honest we will make another step during the season and hopefully it will be as good as this one.”

The upgrades brought to the last two races have been highly effective, with Charles Pic challenging Williams’ Valtteri Bottas last time out in Spain and he finished ahead of Esteban Gutierrez at the Bahrain Grand Prix. van der Garde is sure that the team can squeeze even more pace out of the CT-03, which appears to have finally come good.

“But still I think we have to optimise this and then we will have more potential and we will be faster, but the team is pushing hard so that is why I’m very happy with it.”

Like Caterham, Marussia will be pushing to finish P10 in the constructors’ championship, which this season has extra importance after Bernie Ecclestone revealed earlier this year that the team finishing 11th would not receive any prize money.

ESPN

Friday at Catalunya

2013-05-10T18:38:00.002+02:00

Weather

FP1: Overcast, dry; min / max track temp 17° - 19°, air temp 19°

FP2: Sunny / overcast, dry; min / max track temp 33° - 36°, air temp 23° - 20°

Fastest laps / positions:

FP1: KOV 1.28.373, 16th / VDG 1.28.600, 17th

FP2: VDG 1.25.963, 19th / PIC 1.26.930, 21st

Total laps:

FP1: KOV 14 / VDG 19

FP2: VDG 30 / PIC 35

Runplan

Giedo van der Garde, car #21, chassis CT03-04

FP1

1003 - 1007: Run 1, installation lap, 1 lap (wet tyres)

Changes: rear brake blanking

1036 - 1052: Run 2, 8 laps (intermediate tyres)

Changes: front wing flap angle

1112 - 1123: Run 3, 5 laps (intermediate tyres)

Changes: front wing flap angle, brake balance, front brake duct blanking

1125 - 1132: Run 4, 5 laps (hard tyres)

FP2

1402 - 1413: Run 1, 7 laps (hard tyres)

Changes: front wing flap angle, brake balance, front torsion bar, front anti-roll bar

1423 - 1429: Run 2, 4 laps (medium tyres)

Changes: front wing flap angle, brake balance

1440 - 1453: Run 3, 8 laps (hard tyres)

Changes: front wing flap angle, front torsion bar

1507 - 1526: Run 4, 11 laps (medium tyres)

Driver quotes

Heikki Kovalainen: "For me that was a pretty good session, even though we lost quite a bit of time with a mechanical issue. Once that was fixed we got on with the program and ended up only losing one run and as FP1 started with a wet track everyone else was limiting their track time as well, so the relative loss was minimal. In the session we were mainly working through back-to-back comparisons of some of the new parts we've brought here and it was good to see that the car generally felt much better than the one I drove in Bahrain. The balance has been improved, especially mid-corner and in both low and high speed turns, so it's easier to push, but with so few dry laps today it's too early to tell how much we've gained from the package we have for this race. The rest of the weekend is supposed to be better weather so we'll learn more about how to get the most out of the new parts in FP2 and FP3, but we'll only really find out where we are, and where everyone else is, on Saturday afternoon and on Sunday."

Charles Pic: "Having sat out FP1 I was looking forward to trying out the new parts in FP2. On the first couple of runs the car had too much understeer in the low and medium speed corners so we made a couple of mechanical adjustments and the balance started to improve on runs three and four. Tyre degradation was also not too bad on either compound, but we have more work to do on bringing the tyres up to temperature so we can get them working efficiently as soon as possible. We'll look at that tonight, and how we can optimise the setup with the range of new parts we have here to improve the overall balance as we have quite a lot of time to come from that, and then we'll aim to pick up where we finished in Bahrain."

Giedo van der Garde: "With Friday morning's weather we didn't get as many laps done as we'd like in FP1, but I was still happy with how the car felt with the new parts on it. We didn't have KERS for the session which obviously knocks off about 3/10ths a lap, but we were focusing on testing the new parts so even though the times were ok it was more important to gather as much data as possible.

"In the afternoon session we carried on with evaluation of the update package and we definitely made more progress. The car had good balance on the medium tyres, both on short and long runs, and I think we showed quite good pace on that compound and on the hards but we need to work on the car's behaviour on the entry into corners. Against that is the fact that the car has much better traction out of the corners and that's a really positive sign. Now we have the normal late Friday ahead of us and we'll be focusing on improving the setup generally so we can attack quali as hard as possible, and put us in good shape for the race on Sunday."

CaterhamF1

Giedo: Sunday in Bahrein - Race -

2013-04-21T18:38:00.001+02:00

Weather

Race: Dry, sunny, air temp 31° / track temp 42° (start), 32° / 41° (lap 28), x° / x° (lap x)

Runplan

Giedo van der Garde

Start on medium tyres

Lap 2: pitstop 1, hard tyres

Lap 14: pitstop 2, medium tyres

Lap 24: pitstop 3, hard tyres

Lap 39: pitstop 4, medium tyres

Lap 47: pitstop 5, medium tyres

Finished: 21st

Fastest lap: 1.39.334 (lap 49)

Team Quotes

Giedo van der Garde, car 21, chassis CT03-#5:

"I didn't have a great start but I was up to about 16th with a couple of other cars going into turn four and saw that Vergne had spun and was moving off the line. I tried to miss him but couldn't and we made contact which destroyed my front wing and basically ended my race on the first lap. I couldn't really do anything from that point so I just got my head down and pushed but after losing so much time with the unplanned stop on lap one, and having a delaminated right front after my fourth stop, there really wasn't anyone to race with. From that point I just made sure I brought the car home and used this as another step in my learning curve.

"Despite today it's been a good weekend for the team. The developments we put on my teammate's car have worked well and there's another step to come in Spain when I'll have the same package as Charles. From that point I think my season will look different. We'll be on tracks I know really well, from GP2, World Series and from F1, and with the updates we have coming we have reasons to be positive. The first four races have been exactly what I thought they would - pretty tough, but I'm learning all the time and the whole team's right behind me. I'm feeling really good physically and mentally and I can't wait to get started again in Barcelona."

CaterhamF1

Giedo back to work in FP2

2013-04-19T17:02:00.002+02:00

After sitting out the morning session I went straight back to work in FP2 and ran through a normal Friday afternoon program that included work on both tyre compounds on short and long runs.

The tyre deg here was pretty big, especially on the mediums, but they’re coming up to temperature well and that suggests that if we can manage the deg levels this track might suit us better than the last race in China.

Facebook

Giedo looking forward to Bahrain

2013-04-18T13:22:00.001+02:00

Coming straight after China, the race in Bahrain is also a chance for me to get back to the performance levels I want to be racing at. China was a pretty tough weekend, but I’ve had a couple of days to recharge since leaving Shanghai and after the race we had a very good debrief and we’ve identified a few areas we’ll work on this weekend in Bahrain.

Since announcing my F1 drive I’ve been really clear that the first few races were always going to be tough for a rookie, but it’s all part of the learning process so I’m as positive as ever and looking forward to getting back to work.”

Facebook

Kovalainen back with Caterham

2013-04-17T21:21:00.001+02:00

The Finnish driver comes to the team where he raced for three years, but now in a "formal technical development role".

April 17th, 2013 (GMM).- Former team racer Heikki Kovalainen has rejoined Caterham's F1 driver lineup.

The team announced on Wednesday that the Finn, who raced for the Tony Fernandes-owned outfit since its inception in 2010 until last year, will return to the cockpit this weekend in Bahrain.

Caterham said the highly rated 31-year-old, who has been keeping fit since being replaced by 2013 lineup Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde, is the team's new reserve driver alongside Carlifornian Alexander Rossi.

He will also drive in the first Friday practice sessions at the forthcoming Bahrain and Spanish grands prix.

Caterham said Kovalainen's is a new "formal technical development role" ahead of "the first performance updates to the 2013 car, an important milestone in the strategy the team are working to in the current season".

With Pic and van der Garde at the wheel of the green CT03, Caterham has fallen behind usual rivals Marussia so far in 2013.

"He (Kovalainen) has six years of F1 experience behind him so he is perfectly placed to provide us objective feedback on the various types of configurations we will run and to give us an objective view of the 2013 tyres against his experience with the 2012 compounds," said team boss Cyril Abiteboul.

"Having invested in Heikki for our first three years of competition it would be a waste not to leverage the valuable expertise he brings.

"As F1 is a team sport, he will also provide support to Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde, who are both doing a good job in their first months with the team," he added.

Abiteboul said the driver shakeup was triggered by Chinese driver Ma Qing Hua's practice run in Shanghai, whereafter "a number of new opportunities have arisen for him".

Rossi is replacing Ma at Caterham's GP2 team, but the Chinese "remains a core member of Caterham's (F1) driver roster and an announcement about his (Ma's) revised race plans in 2013 will be made in due course".

Formule1Plus.com

Giedo: Sunday in China - The race

2013-04-14T13:12:00.002+02:00

Weather

Race: Dry, hazy, air temp 22° / track temp 32° (start), 18° / 29° (lap 28), 17° / 25° (lap 56)

Giedo van der Garde

Start on soft tyres

Lap 6: pitstop 1, medium tyres

Lap 20: pitstop 2, medium tyres

Lap 37: pitstop 3, medium tyres

Finished 18th

Fastest lap: 1.42.357 (lap 42)

Giedo van der Garde, car 21, chassis CT03-#5: "That really wasn't a good race for me. I had another very strong start, passing three cars, but almost from the moment the first set of softs started going off I couldn't find any real pace and was struggling for the whole race.

After a good Friday it's been a pretty tough weekend for me, but I'm a very positive person and this is all part of the learning curve I knew I'd have for the early season races and I know I have the team on my side to help me progress.

We have the chance straight away to get back to the sort of performance we want in Bahrain so we'll look at what we can learn from here and move on to the next race where I'm sure things will improve."

Caterham

Win gives Alonso optimism for the title Race

2013-04-14T13:09:00.000+02:00

Fernando Alonso said he won the Chinese Grand Prix with pace in hand after taking the chequered flag 10.1s ahead of his nearest rival Kimi Raikkonen, giving him optimism for his title fight this year.

Alonso made a strong start and passed Hamilton for the lead on lap five using DRS. From that point onwards he used the strength of the Ferrari over long stints to ease ahead of his rivals and by the time the varying strategies worked out he was comfortably in the lead.

"It was a fantastic race for us from the start to the end without any big problems from the car," he said. "The tyre degradation was better than expected so we managed the pace. It feels great after the retirement in Malaysia because we had some pressure to finish the race. The two races we have finished this year [Australia and China], one was in second place and the other a victory so definitely the start of this 2013 campaign is looking good and I'm very optimistic."

When it was clear that Alonso had a comfortable lead his race engineer asked him to take it easy, but the Ferrari driver said he had pace in hand throughout the race.

"You always push in a Formula One race; it's impossible not to push," he added. "But it's true that we had some pace in our pocket, but it's difficult to know when to use it depending on the state of the tyres. We have more potential and hopefully we can show that in Bahrain next week."

Asked how he expected to perform in Bahrain, Alonso added: "We expect a tough race again and I think in Bahrain we will see maybe different conditions. Who knows how competitive anyone can be but definitely, as I said before, the races that we've finished this year the car seems to be able to be on the podium again in Bahrain."

Giedo van der Garde finished 18th.

ESPN.F1

Saturday in China - Qualifying

2013-04-13T15:09:00.001+02:00

Weather

FP3: Dry, sunny; min / max track temp 34° - 36°, air temp 25° - 27°

Q1: Dry, sunny; min / max track temp 40° - 41°, air temp 27°

Fastest laps / positions:

FP3: PIC 1.38.821, 20th / VDG 1.39.652, 22nd

Q1: PIC 1.39.614, 21st / VDG 1.39.660, 22nd

Total laps:

FP3: PIC 18 / VDG 18

Q1: PIC 6 / VDG 6

Runplan

Giedo van der Garde, car #21, chassis CT03-05

FP3

1103 - 1117: Run 1, 7 lap (medium tyres)

Changes: rear camber

1128 - 1139: Run 2, 6 laps (medium tyres)

Changes: front wing flap angle

1152 - 1201: Run 3, 5 laps (soft tyres)

1409 - 1415: Run 1, 3 laps (soft tyres)

Changes: front wing flap angle

1417 - 1423: Run 2, 3 laps (soft tyres)

Driver quotes

Giedo van der Garde: "After two productive sessions yesterday I just couldn't get the same feeling from the car in FP3 and that carried over into qualifying. Like Charles, I've had quite a few small problems in each session and together they've held us back quite a bit. We're struggling to understand the tyre behaviour here and when the track temps went up today it was like having to start again with our understanding of how to get them working. My final position in quali is obviously disappointing, particularly as I made a mistake in turn two on my second run, pushing too hard into the corner and that cost me about four tenths. Without that I'd have finished a bit higher up the grid but now we have to focus on tomorrow's race and aim for the same sort of performance we put in at the last race in Malaysia."

Caterham (shortened)

Giedo after Friday practice at Shanghai

2013-04-12T14:57:00.000+02:00

Giedo van der Garde - FP1: 21st, FP2: 20th

"Both practice sessions for me were ok but we've had issues all day that have held us back a bit. This morning we had a KERS issue that meant we were running without KERS for the whole session, and that obviously didn't help, and then in the afternoon I overcooked it going into turn one on one of the medium sets and that meant we had to cut short the FP2 plan so we didn't use up another set of tyres.

Despite that we have a lot of good data on the medium tyres from both sessions and the performance run on the softs went ok. Degradation levels are going to be big here, particularly on the softs which had pretty much gone by the end of the long run we did on them, so we'll have to look closely at how we deal with that on Sunday.

"We know this isn't going to be a particularly easy weekend for us but I still think we can fight tomorrow and on Sunday. The atmosphere in the team is good and if we can repeat the sort of race performance we had on Sunday in Malaysia we'll be ok."

ESPN.F1

Van der Garde voorspelt vuurwerk in Bahrein

2013-04-12T13:07:00.004+02:00

- English translation below the article -

De bolides van Caterham zullen vanaf de Grote Prijs van Bahrein (19-21 april) een stuk sneller zijn. Dat verwacht Giedo van der Garde, de Nederlandse coureur van de Maleisische Formule 1-renstal.

'De resultaten van windtunneltesten zijn dan beschikbaar. Het is even afwachten hoe de auto gaat reageren, maar het team is erg positief. Andere teams brengen niet zo veel updates als wij.'

Eerst komt dit weekeinde nog de Grand Prix van China op het circuit van Shanghai. 'Hier heb ik vorig jaar mijn eerste vrije training als reserve van Caterham gereden, dus ik ken het al. Het is een vrij technisch circuit, met veel en diverse bochten. Ik hoop op droog en zonnig weer, want dan kunnen we de meeste rondes rijden in de trainingen. We richten ons vooral op de juiste afstelling van de bolide voor de kwalificatie. De auto was niet echt naar mijn zin nog in Melbourne en Maleisië, dus ik wil dat graag beter in China.'

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VAN DER GARDE PREDICTS FIREWORK IN BAHREIN

The Caterham bolides will be a lot faster as per the GP of Bahrein (19-21 April). This is what Giedo van der Garde, the Dutch driver of the Malaysian team, expects.

'The results of the windtunnel test are in by then. It's just waiting how the car is gonna react, but the team is very positive. Other teams do not offer as many updates as we do'.

There's the GP of China first this weekend, which is held on the circuit in Shanghai. 'I drove my first free practice as reserver driver for Caterham here last year so I already know the track. It's a pretty technical track, with many diverse turns. I hope for sunny and dry weather because that's when we're able to drive the most laps in the free practices. We mainly focus on the right setting for the car with qualifying. I can't say the car was quite how I liked it in Melbourne and Malaysia, so I hope it will be better in China.

AD.nl / Translated: giedovandergarde.net

Giedo on China

2013-04-11T19:19:00.000+02:00

China's the next race and we're going back to where I did my first FP1 with Caterham last year, so it's the first track this season I've already driven on in an F1 car. Hopefully it'll be better weather this year as FP1 last year started out wet and was a bit damp for the whole session so I wasn't really able to push.

It would be good if it was sunny as that would mean we can get the most number of laps done and one thing we are going to be focusing on in China is work on improving our setup options for qualifying, using the practice sessions to give us as many options as possible for the race but also for quali.

I didn't have the car behaving exactly as I'd like in either Australia or Malaysia so I want to get that right in China.

Facebook Giedo

Chinese GP preview quotes: Giedo van der Garde - Caterham

2013-04-09T14:57:00.001+02:00

Giedo van der Garde: "China's the next race and we're going back to where I did my first FP1 with Caterham last year, so it's the first track this season I've already driven on in an F1 car. Hopefully it'll be better weather this year as FP1 last year started out wet and was a bit damp for the whole session so I wasn't really able to push.

"The Shanghai track itself is a very technical circuit. It's a mix of slow, medium and high speed corners so finding the right balance to deal with the whole lap is going to be key to performance in both quali and in the race. We had oversteer issues on entry into the corners in Malaysia and Australia and that definitely hit my race pace, particularly as it was impacting on tyre degradation levels, so we've done a bit of work on that with Pirelli in Milan and back at Leafield since Malaysia so we'll see what we've achieved when we get to Shanghai."

Autosport.com

Van der Garde seeks improvement in China

2013-04-09T14:52:00.001+02:00

Giedo van der Garde hopes to improve in China after a difficult start to his F1 career.

Giedo van der Garde has admitted that the handling characteristics of the Caterham have made the opening races of his F1 career difficult.

Throughout winter testing, commentators observed that the team's 2013 challenger, the CT03, suffered from a lack of balance that stemmed from a strong front end but weak rear.

Speaking in the team's event preview for this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix, van der Garde admitted that this has lead to increased tyre wear which in turn, has not provided him with the chance to perform at his maximum.

“I didn't have the car behaving exactly as I'd like in either Australia or Malaysia so I want to get that right in China,” he commented.

"We had oversteer issues on entry into the corners in Malaysia and Australia and that definitely hit my race pace, particularly as it was impacting on [tyre] degradation levels.”

However, he said that during the three week break between Malaysia and China, the team has worked closely with Pirelli to resolve the tyre wear issues and is keeping an open mind ahead of this weekend's race.

“We've done a bit of work on that [tyre degradation] with Pirelli in Milan and back at Leafield since Malaysia so we'll see what we've achieved when we get to Shanghai,” he concluded.

Van der Garde lies 19th in the driver's standings.

By George East / Crash.net

Van der Garde: Caterham will fight back

2013-04-08T09:21:00.001+02:00

Giedo van der Garde believes Caterham can reign in Marussia despite losing out in the early battles between the two backmarker teams.

Having edged Marussia in the first three seasons of the battle, Caterham have fallen behind in the opening stint of this year's Championship.

Yet to beat Marussia's Jules Bianchi, van der Garde at least edged ahead of Max Chilton at the last race in Malaysia.

"The car was hard to drive, especially as the tyre drop off was much higher than my team-mate because the diffuser was gone," the Dutchman told Autosport.

"Like this we still managed to keep me in front of Chilton, so it was good experience. We know where we are at the moment, and we know in Barcelona an upgrade is coming.

"The next two races won't be easy but for after we can make a good step. Marussia has a little advantage but hopefully we can fight them."

However, it's not just Caterham who need to up their game with the 27-year-old rookie admitting he's still learning as well.

"It's how it is at the moment. It's not an easy car but I'm very happy. The team let me learn step by step, all the procedures, the way you drive, the tyres, so for me it has been good.

"It is different. Before in GP2 you wait at the front of the grid, look in the mirror, the cars are coming, first gear and away you go. Here it is like, select neutral and oh shit the lights go on.

"So the philosophy is a bit different but it's where we are at the moment. Race by race it'll get better."

PlanetF1

Van der Garde to 'lose' four FP1s

2013-03-30T09:39:00.000+01:00

Giedo van der Garde could sit out as many as four sessions as Caterham run reserve drivers in Friday practices.

The 27-year-old rookie joined Caterham at the start of this season, securing a best result of P15 in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

However, Van der Garde's preparations will take a knock in Bahrain and at three other events as he hands his car over to either Alexander Rossi or Ma Qing Hua.

The Dutchman, though, doesn't begrudge the reserve drivers as it was a Friday role that helped him secure his Caterham drive.

"As it stands I will lose four Friday sessions," Van der Garde told GPUpdate.net. "The first one I won't be driving is Bahrain.

"I would have rather be driving these sessions myself and get as much track time as possible, but this is in the contract and I'm sure it will be good experience for these guys. I had that same role with the team last year and because of the work I did then, I earned this race seat."

PlanetF1

Caterham Unchained - Part 8

2013-03-28T18:04:00.001+01:00

Caterham Unchained Part 8 - Cyril Abiteboul on Caterham's start of the F1 season.

Caterham on YouTube

Van der Garde pushing through first two races

2013-03-27T11:27:00.001+01:00

Two finishes in the first two starts represent a decent beginning to Giedo van der Garde’s Formula 1 career. It could have been a lot worse given some of his exploits in the first two rounds with Caterham F1.

The Dutchman’s off course excursion in Friday practice in Melbourne cost him valuable track time. The disjointed qualifying session that started Saturday and ended Sunday also threw him for a loop.

“I think we’re very realistic about where we are at this point of the season, so anything more would have been a bonus, even in those conditions. We made the call to go to inters at the right time and if luck had gone our way a little more then maybe it would have been a different story, but it is what it is,” he explained in his official Formula 1 rookie diary.

Van der Garde and Caterham are primarily battling Marussia at the back of the grid. Neither team has scored points in their histories in the sport, but Marussia’s Jules Bianchi already has a 13th-place finish under his belt at Malaysia.

NBCSports