Giedo van der Garde has said that he hopes to record a top thirteen finish in the final two races of the season to promote Caterham up to tenth in the constructors’ championship, believing that it would be a fair result.
Both Caterham and Marussia have been embroiled in this season-long battle for P10, with the extra position resulting in greater amounts of prize money which can be crucial in developing next year’s car. Marussia currently occupy tenth place thanks to Jules Bianchi’s thirteenth place finish at the Malaysian Grand Prix back in March. However, since the Bahrain Grand Prix in April, Caterham have enjoyed a pace advantage over their Anglo-Russian rivals but have lacked the luck required to see them finish so highly. Nevertheless, van der Garde is still hopeful.
“What would I like to achieve in the final couple of races? The simple answer is tenth place in the constructors’ championship for the team,” van der Garde explained in his latest ‘Rookie Diary’ on the official Formula One website. “If we do that it’ll mean Charles [Pic] or I will have finished thirteenth or higher – obviously I’d like it to be me – but for the team, and for me personally, I think that would be a fair result. We started behind Marussia in terms of pure pace and because everyone at the factory and on track worked so hard, we overtook them by Spain and have been faster ever since.”
van der Garde made his Formula One debut at the beginning of the year, and the Dutchman struggled at first before finding his feet. He has made Q2 on two occasions and recently began to establish himself as the quickest of the ‘bottom four’ runners, and he will be keen on securing a place with Caterham in 2014 despite Heikki Kovalainen being poised to return.
