van der Garde believes there is room for improvement - MotorSportsTalk

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.

An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”