Caterham aiming to take another step forward at Silverstone

After a very competitive European Grand Prix around the Valencia Street Circuit, where Vitaly Petrov nearly scored the teams first ever World Championship point, Caterham are aiming to take yet another step forward at this weekends British Grand Prix. With the team introducing several new parts to their car, the drivers are optimistic on enjoying another competitive weekend.

Throughout the European Grand Prix, the Caterham duo of Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov were both extremely close the Toro Rossos. This weekend at the legendary Silverstone circuit, Vitaly Petrov is hopeful that Caterham can once again reel in the Toro Rosso duo and possibly even progress through to Q2 during qualifying once again.

“As we’ll be bringing more new parts to the British Grand Prix I think it’s another race where we’ll be able to take a step forwards.” Explained Vitaly Petrov, “I’m sure everyone else will be bringing upgrades so we need to make sure that we don’t just make gains, but we improve more than our nearest rivals. That’s a big challenge but after seeing the gap to Toro Rosso shrink in Valencia we have a clear target just ahead and that gave the whole team a real boost. The team made great progress in Valencia and I really hope that we will continue in the same manner at the next race.”

With other teams also set to introduce new parts to their cars, the British Grand Prix could well be another highly exciting addition to the 2012 season. The new parts for Caterham this weekend will consist of new rear bodywork and a revised exhaust layout, amongst other upgrades. With Caterham visibly more competitive in Valencia, the team are hopeful this weekends British Grand Prix will continue the positiveness that currently exists within the team.

“We left Valencia after a very positive weekend for the whole team.” Said Caterham’s Technical Director, Mark Smith. “One of the most pleasing aspects for me was seeing that the numbers we had predicted for the upgrades we brought there matched what we did on track, and that gives us a lot of confidence that future upgrade packages should continue the trend we are seeing of the gap to the teams ahead shrinking. For Silverstone we will be bringing a number of new parts, including new rear bodywork, a revised exhaust layout and a number of smaller updates in other bodywork areas around the car.”

This weekends British Grand Prix is one of two homes race for the Caterham F1 team, as they are based at Hingham in Norfolk. This will undoubtedly be more incentive for the team to continue improving, as they edge ever closer to that elusive first World Championship point.

Follow me on Twitter - @AndyYoungF1