Mike Gascoyne: It has been a perfect start to the season for Caterham

Caterham’s Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne insisted the team is making strong progress as Formula 1 testing continued in Spain on Thursday. After an early drama, when Heikki Kovalainen was taken ill with food poisoning, Vitaly Petrov drove the car and notched up an impressive 123 laps.

«That was an excellent day for us, despite the very late change of driver we had to make this morning» Caterham boss was quoted as saying in a press-release. «We ran 123 laps and completed the whole programme and, even though we will not have Vitaly’s race seat ready until he is back in the car on Sunday, he was much more comfortable in the car and improved his times and his feedback throughout the day.»

«This morning we were focusing on further tyre evaluation and setup work and in the afternoon session we completed a number of long runs, which has helped us take a step forward with the setup options for this car. Taking into account the number of laps we ran today, and the fact Vitaly is feeling ever more comfortable with the team and in the car, I think we can say that this has been the perfect start to the test for the whole team,» Gascoyne added.