Caterham close to Ferrari’s pace in Abu Dhabi

2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix lap times and fastest laps

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Ferrari’s poor pace in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was highlighted by the fact Fernando Alonso’s best lap time was only seven-thousandths of a second faster than Kamui Kobayashi’s.

The Caterham driver used the super-soft tyres at the end of the race while Alonso was on the harder softs. Nonetheless Kobayashi retired four laps after setting his quickest tour, and so did not set a time when his car was low on fuel, and was at the wheel of a car which was being run by a skeleton crew and hadn’t seen action in the last two races.

Ferrari’s technical director Pat Fry revealed both the team’s drivers had been beset by technical problems during the race.

“Over all 55 laps, both Kimi [Raikkonen] and Fernando struggled with little reliability problems which affected their cars,” he said. “Having gained two places at the start, we had to make the first stops very early because of tyre degradation.”

“That put us back out in traffic and unfortunately, our management of the power units and the tyres meant it was difficult to make any overtaking moves.”

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix lap times

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

RankDriverCarFastest lapGapOn lap
1Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’44.49650
2Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’44.8260.33047
3Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’45.5521.05651
4Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’45.5991.10349
5Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Renault1’45.6861.19050
6Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’45.7271.23154
7Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’45.7771.28147
8Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’45.8081.31249
9Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’46.7392.24347
10Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1’46.8242.32837
11Nico RosbergMercedes1’46.8692.37317
12Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’47.4242.92845
13Kamui KobayashiCaterham-Renault1’47.4312.93538
14Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari1’47.5083.01244
15Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’47.6983.20243
16Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’47.7363.24046
17Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’47.8973.40135
18Will StevensCaterham-Renault1’48.3983.90247
19Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’48.7484.25210
20Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1’48.9334.4379

2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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27 comments on “Caterham close to Ferrari’s pace in Abu Dhabi”

  1. That is actually really really funny.

    1. Not if you are owed money by Caterham !

      1. @reiter @hohum Someone has to be the cynic and it might as well be me: Did he have enough fuel in the car to get to the end? Or did they ‘do a Toleman’?

        1. Who knows, maybe $2.35M only bought them 95kg of fuel.

        2. What is it that Toleman did?

          1. @keithcollantine what is it that Toleman did?

          2. @jb784 Sorry I didn’t see this at the time. They allegedly put insufficient fuel in Derek Warwick’s car at the 1982 British Grand Prix so he could run with the leaders for a while, before he ran out of fuel and retired ‘due to a technical problem’…

  2. I’m a big Kimi fan so really hope they sort their PU over the winter, if they don’t make some ground on Merc they have no chance.

    I have a feeling Seb is in for a nasty surprise because somehow I feel the Renault PU actually has an edge over the Ferrari at the moment.

  3. That is totally worth the £2.3million quid required to send Caterham there.

    1. I am glad that I donated money to them. Will receive a very collectable patch :)

  4. I miss Kamui!

    1. Sorry, I will miss Kamui!

  5. I hope the underpaid teams keep pointing that out to the popular press, Bernie has no shame but Ferrari might wish to keep that sort of fact buried and may be prepared to forgo a little of their unearned “prize” money.

    1. @keithcollantine, my natural cynicism must have still been sleeping, still if you cant compete financially I guess you have to be a little cunning and milk the spirit of human kindness for all it is worth. Bernie would approve in principal.

  6. Considering Ferrari World is one of the landmark sites visible from the track, it’s pretty sad that Abu Dhabi has brought nothing but misery for the Scuderia. I don’t think Ferrari can get much worse than this season – a meagre two podiums brought only by the brilliance of the driver now leaving the team. Come on 2015, give me something to cheer about!

  7. Sebastian Vettel, welcome to Ferrari!

    1. haha..@bullmello..precisely what I was thinking.

      However, I wont be surprised if Ferrari return to domination in a few years time. They have the money and all they need now is the personnel. In Alison they have a solid designer and in Vettel, a safe pair of hands that can drive the wheels off the car if it suits him. All they need now is leadership. The word on the street is that Mattiaci is out, so whoever comes in, will have his tasks set out.

      1. @jaymenon10 – I’m not a huge Ferrari fan, but I appreciate the tradition and legend they bring to F1. I really do hope they give a better car to Vettel and Raikkonen for 2015. It would make for a better grid and these things are cyclical, just ask Red Bull and Mercedes. Allison, as you mentioned, is a solid designer and will have more influence over the 2015 car, there is some hope there. The next team principal should have more of a racing background and as you pointed out, leadership. Leadership to bring the correct Ferrari assets together for a better season than 2014 would be a good thing.

  8. While Kobayashi was only 0.007 secs off Alonso’s best lap, he was also faster than both Saubers. Stevens on the hand: wasn’t a magical performance from him but in my opinion, he did very well considering that he had to adjust himself very quickly for the race and done a more than acceptable job. I doubt this would be his last race in F1

  9. When Kobayashi set his fastest time on Lap 38 (Time of Day 18:14:42) he was blue-flagged (18:13:50) so he mush have lost some time and could have gone faster. On top of that he was again driving slower of the Caterhams. Photographic evidence here:
    KOB: http://www.motorsport.com/f1/photo/main-gallery/kamui-kobayashi-caterham-ct05-250/?sz=9&r=8284&s=-6&oft=48&id=1792863&i=36
    STE: http://www.motorsport.com/f1/photo/main-gallery/will-stevens-caterham-ct05-17/?sz=9&r=8284&s=-6&oft=48&id=1792851&i=48

    1. I meant ‘must have’ not ‘mush have’, and I have posted my comment before completing so here is what I wanted to say:
      Kobayashi, faster driver, forced to drive the slower of the Caterhams shows how seriously messed Caterham is, or F1 is. Faster drivers used to be treated as #1 driver and given priorities when teams could not give their drivers identical cars even other ones who were a pay-driver and brought a lot of $$. However nowadays those pay-drivers demand preferential treatment and they get it.
      Ericson did it in Japan and Russia, and Stevens did in Abu Dhabi. $$ prevailed. IAN PHILLIPS says in Autosport magazine that the development package is worth 1.5s. If it is true, Caterham missed opportunity to show their true potential in Abu Dhabi in front of their potential buyers.
      Former boss Manfredi Ravetto said just before Japanese GP the new parts would allow them to fight Lotus’ and Saubers who had been about 1.2 – 1.5s faster than Caterham all year. Ericson had been average 1s slower than Kobayashi until Japanese GP where he received the new parts and suddenly he had become a few tenth of a second faster than Kobayashi. So it seems the number Ian Phillips mentioned is correct.

      Pay drivers has started ruling some of small teams and media are oblivious to the fact.

      1. 1.5 seconds is probably an exaggeration but everything else you say is a good point. sad times.

      2. How do you know that the faster car was paid for? It could have very well been a flip of the coin for the raining wings in the basement.

  10. Glad to see Fernando out of there. Best of luck Sebastian!

  11. Weird to note that both Ferrari-engined teams had their worst years in a long while, if not ever (Sauber). Had high hopes for Allison joining Ferrari, but man, the F14t is just a hideous piece of uselessness.

    1. Let’s not forget about Marussia, who also had a Ferrari PU.

      But yeah, this year’s Ferrari was horrible, and it’s incredible how Fernando still managed to finish on the podium twice.

  12. Did anyone else see Alonso trying to pass a Caterham on the straight and even with DRS he barely got past? lol

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