- Caterham news
Kovalainen notes Caterham progress
ESPNF1 Staff
February 7, 2012
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Heikki Kovlainen's running was cut short by a starter shaft failure © Getty Images
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Heikki Kovalainen is sure Caterham has made progress with the new CT01 but says it's too early to know how much.
Caterham - then Lotus - was comfortably the quickest of the new teams in 2011 but was unable to bridge the gap to the midfield teams. Now, with the new car and KERS the team is aiming to score its first point this season, and after the first day of testing at Jerez was quicker than Pastor Maldonado's Williams and just 0.3s slower than the Ferrari of Felipe Massa.
While times are virtually impossible to read in to during the early days of testing, Kovalainen confirmed that he could notice an improvement with the new car.
"It's good to be back at work after the winter break and great to see how up for the season ahead the whole team are," Kovalainen said. "We were first out on track this morning and the early feeling I had from the car was good. It's far too early to tell how much we've progressed but it already feels like we're going in the right direction.
"We obviously didn't want to end early today but we couldn't sort out the starter shaft issue in time to get back on track, but I'm reasonably pleased with what we have achieved today and I know the team will put in the work tonight to get us back out on track tomorrow and pick up where we left off today."
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