Caterham driver Kamui Kobayashi has said that he needs to make the most of practice on Friday if he is to bounce back from a disappointing Australian Grand Prix at the next round in Malaysia (March 28-30).
The Japanese driver completed just one lap on Friday in Melbourne due to a variety of problems with his CT-05 car, meaning that he was left playing catch-up for the rest of the weekend. He did manage to qualify an excellent 15th in the rain, but his race lasted just one corner due to a brake failure.
“The way we bounced back in qualifying in Melbourne showed a little bit of what we can do, but without any real laps in FP1 or FP2 we only had a very small chance to fight,” Kobayashi explained. “With a proper Friday and Saturday programme we can give ourselves the opportunity to show the true pace of the car, and prepare much more for the race.
“Obviously, I’d like to also make sure I don’t have the same brake problems that caused the accident in turn one in Australia – without that I think we’d have had a strong race and we’ll work as hard as we can to give ourselves the chance to really perform.”
The Malaysian Grand Prix also marks Caterham’s home race, with team owner Tony Fernandes hailing from Kuala Lumpur and owning airline company AirAsia. For Kobayashi, the grand prix at Sepang takes on extra importance, but he takes courage in his previous performances there.
“The second race of the year is Malaysia and it’s our team’s first home race of the year, so it’s going to be a good week!” he said. “I’ve obviously raced there a few times before, and finished in the points in 2011.
“This year it would be great if we were able to fight for a point, but we’ll have to make sure we have a better Friday than we did in Australia if we’re going to have a stronger weekend at Sepang.”
