Caterham gets its first double finish of 2014 in home Grand Prix - MotorSportsTalk

If points aren’t achievable, high midpack results remain the aim for Formula One’s two newest teams – Caterham and Marussia.

While Marussia got both cars home in the Australian Grand Prix, on Sunday, it was Caterham’s turn to do so in Malaysia with its pair of CT05-Renaults.

Kamui Kobayashi ended 13th, Marcus Ericsson 14th on separate strategies. For Kobayashi, a two-stopper saw him take on options at the first stop and primes on the second; Ericsson completed a three-stop strategy to finish his first ever Grand Prix.

Considering some of the testing gremlins that popped up, and a challenging Australian weekend, this was a good day’s work for the Malaysian-entered, Tony Fernandes-led team in its home Grand Prix.

“13th in our second race of the season is a very good result for the team, especially after such a bad weekend until the race!” said Kobayashi. “I had a great start, and no brake problems this time going into turn one, and by the end of the first lap I was up to 16th, running at the same pace as Sutil just ahead and with the car performing much better than it had all weekend.”

Added Ericsson, who recovered quite nicely from a Saturday accident: “First I want to thank the boys in the garage for working so hard to fix my car after yesterday’s accident. I was feeling a bit low last night, but to have finished my first full Grand Prix in 14th, helping us move up into tenth place in the constructors’ championship, is a great feeling, for me and everyone in Caterham.”

Marussia’s Max Chilton was 13th at Melbourne and 15th in Malaysia; teammate Jules Bianchi was an unclassified 14th in the former and retired on Sunday due to a brake issue.

This race was the decisive event that determined 10th place in the Constructor’s Championship for Marussia, courtesy of Bianchi’s 13th-place finish. Time will tell if the 2014 result will do the same.

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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.”