Exclusive: Charles Pic gives an insight into Caterham 2013

Charles Pic, the only Frenchmen currently driving in Formula 1, has just come off yet another successful qualifying session in Canada. He has out qualified not only his teammate, but also the two rival Marussia cars of Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton.

Pic’s lap time of 1:25.626 is just 0.718 seconds off the pace of Paul di Resta’s Force India in front of him showing once again that both he and his Caterham team are taking steps forward to compete with the mid-field.

Aged just 23 years old, Pic remains one of the youngest drivers in Formula 1. Already having driven a full season in Formula 1 last year, Pic is in his second consecutive year racing in F1, having moved to the Caterham outfit at the end of the 2012 season. With the adrenaline still rushing through him from qualifying, I took the opportunity to grab a few minutes with the young rookie driver and see where the team stands now, and what it is aiming for in the future.

Obviously you’re doing very well; I think it’s fair to say. You’re competing against the Marussia cars now, but we always find ourselves talking about the ‘now’, but what is your plan long term? Where do you want to end the season?

“Our main goal is to continue to grow, to progress, because Caterham is a young team, a very young team. Our job [as drivers} really is to keep pushing in each of the races.”

And obviously we’ve seen Caterham with some very good results recently; pushing towards the mid-field, and even seeing Giedo [van der Garde} reach Q2 in Monaco. Is this something that Caterham can continue to do, can they continue to push towards the mid-field or are we still working on consistency?

“I think in Monaco it was tricky conditions, it’s not really reflecting the performance of the car right now. It was a very good qualifying for us because we optimised the condition, but I think that right now the car is not fast enough to get to Q2 in qualifying. I think that we are better in race pace than we are in qualifying so we start to be a bit closer to the Williams and Sauber in the race, and so we need to keep pushing on this. The target is to be closer every race, every season.”

So on the subject of competing with the Williams and Sauber teams; both of these teams have been in a points scoring position and have achieved world championship points regularly. Can Caterham get any world championship points this year?

“I mean it will depend on what we will do. At the moment I think we are not in a position where we can score points normally. I mean, anything can happen, but in a current race pace we don’t get the opportunity to score points. But we are pushing really hard and this is the target of course, long term.”

Thanks Charles. And to finish and just a little off the topic of F1 – as a Frenchman in a French speaking city, do you find yourself in Montreal often, and what do you get up to whilst in Montreal if so?

“No not often, because obviously Montreal is a long way from France. Though I came here this year and last year and it’s a really great city and very good track. I enjoy my time here whenever I can.”

Thanks for your time today and good luck with the race.

“Thanks.”

Charles Pic will start the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada 2013 from P20. He currently sits tied for fourteenth place in the World Drivers’ Championship standings, ahead of rookie Marussia driver Max Chilton and teammate Giedo van der Garde.