Kamui Kobayashi has given a damning verdict on Caterham’s chances at the season opener in Australia, claiming it might be better to take a GP2 car.
The team struggled to complete a respectable number of laps during the first test in Jerez. However things improved during the second test in Bahrain, but the Japanese driver is still questioning the cars reliability as well as its speed.
“We are not at race pace,” he said. “In race condition at the moment we should bring a GP2 car – it is like that, the lap time is similar to GP2.
“We have so many car problems and we need to do a lot of work. If we had to race now, I think it is not [at the level of] F1.”
Kobayashi is confident that should they work through the problems, then a respectable lap time is possible.
“But when I look at the base lap time it is amazing – the possibility is there. We need to work a lot and it looks like we have a lot of steps to do. We will try and work and progress. I just need to believe in them and then we will see in Melbourne.”
Asked if he was worried, he replied: “Of course. When we look at the lap times we need to be worried. I cannot be happy. I have to think what I need to do and time is very limited. With all the changes time is very important.
“We need to influence the laps time and investigate and prioritise to ensure we finish races. We need to think about this side as well as performance. We are limited but we have to try whatever we can.”
