Caterham Team Principal Tony Fernandes is hoping for a strong showing from his team at their home grand prix in Malaysia this weekend.
Team looking to improve after disappointing start to season
Caterham Team Principal Tony Fernandes is hoping for a strong showing from his team at their home grand prix in Malaysia this weekend.
Despite being based in England, Caterham are officially registered as a Malaysian team, the homeland of Fernandes.
The team appeared to have made significant strides forward during pre-season testing, but were disappointing in Melbourne and were one of only two teams to have both cars retire.
But Fernandes is confident his team will be more competitive this weekend.
"We have obviously improved our pace relative to our 2011 speed," the Malaysian entrepreneur said.
"But the teams ahead have also improved, so even though we are closer than this time last year we still have work to do to bridge the gap in qualifying.
"However, in the race I think it looks like a different matter.
Agonising
"At the end of last year we were agonisingly close to a number of cars ahead, and this year our race lap times in Australia were on a par with at least three cars ahead.
"With a bit of luck, which obviously deserted us in Melbourne, I think the Malaysian race will give us a chance to show just what we have achieved over the winter.
"That gives us good reason to be optimistic about the weekend ahead."
Penalty
The team will start on the back foot however as Heikki Kovalainen has been handed a five-place grid penalty for overtaking behind the safety car when entering the pitlane.
Believing the penalty to be "a bit harsh", Kovalainen added: "It is just unfortunate I made a small mistake that will put me back five places on the grid at Sepang.
"It's not really a problem. We know we can pass the cars that will probably be ahead on the grid.
"I'll just have to do my best to put myself as far up the grid as I can on Saturday so we can minimise the effect of the penalty in the race."
As for Petrov, who made his Caterham debut on Sunday, he feels despite the problems that ruined his race, there is a platform on which to work.
"The race in Melbourne didn't end as we wanted, but it was still very good to see we could push the cars ahead," said Petrov. "Until the problem we had with the steering wheel I felt good in the car.
"My engineer told me afterwards he felt happy, despite how the race finished, because we'd done a really good job in the car and in the pitstops.
"So we know we have something to work on, which is good motivation for the race at Sepang."
