[Team] Caterham vs. Marussia - The Battle for 10th Place.

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Hey lads/ladies, a columnist for FormulaSpy called Luke Murphy has written this piece on the battle at the back.
The link to the article on the site is here.


A battle which has been of great interest to many is the rivalry between minnows Marussia and Caterham. Having both started out in 2010 they enter their fourth season in Formula One having never scored a point. Regardless, 10th place in the constructors championship is worth several million pounds to the team that manages to claim it, which will make them more attractive to sponsors as well as having bragging rights for the season.

The biggest change to this season, however, is the absence of Hispania Racing Team (HRT). Fans could be forgiven for thinking that losing one team from the back-of-the-grid battle would mean less of a contest to observe with only 4 drivers among them but the racing has been close between them, and the battle for supremacy has been intensifying.

Both teams entered a slightly unknown scenario at the start of the season where the most experienced driver (Charles Pic) between them had only 20 races under his belt. Race-winner Heikki Kovalainen, and podium-visitors Timo Glock and Vitaly Petrov were shown the door in the off-season to make way for GP2 graduates, and it seems this could be the main reason for the close contest at the back of the grid this season.

At first, it seemed that this season could become the Jules Bianchi show. Not only comprehensively defeating the Caterhams, but dominating his own team-mate, Max Chilton, in the first three races of the year. Everybody has been singing the praises of the young Frenchman, touting this year as the biggest impact in a back-of-the-grid team since Fernando Alonso's debut season in a Minardi. But with such a performance difference between Bianchi and Chilton in the first three races, it's been a little difficult to determine if Marussia is genuinely ahead of Caterham. Is Bianchi a very talented driver, or was Chilton just struggling to adapt to the step-up of Formula One, making Bianchi seem like a world beater? The fact that we have lost the comparable experienced drivers means its harder for the viewers to determine which cars are faster, especially now the order has been changing between them in recent races. Charles Pic is looking more and more like a team leader, Giedo van der Garde is showing good progress on some of his GP2 form circuits like Barcelona and Monaco, and Max Chilton has been threatening to reduce the gap to his team-mate significantly. At the moment though it looks like it could come down to Pic vs Bianchi, as after 9 races, both of them are showing little signs of relinquishing dominance over their respective team-mates.

However, in amongst this contest is the ultimate goal of catching up to, and being able to regularly compete with, the rest of the teams on the grid. They've showed signs that they are not too far away, but the rule changes being enforced in 2014 will give them a decent chance at being able to out-develop rival teams and leapfrog them. The fact that the planned aerodynamic changes have been abandoned means they're very unlikely to do a Brawn-style revolution and go from the back to the front in one winter, but it's still a window of opportunity nonetheless.

But when can these teams stop development of this years car to focus on next years model? If they stop too soon they leave themselves open to finishing last in the constructors championship, which would leave them with no prize money. If they switch to next years car too late they might collect 10th place but have a dog of car next season and fall behind with development. I'm not too sure that these smaller teams have the resources to concentrate fully on both cars at once. I think the only situation where both these teams would concentrate on next years car would be if we were to experience a totally mad race where one them claims something like a 7th place, thus achieving a points total which would be horrendously difficult to beat for the other team. But until that happens, I'm not sure I would like to be the one who makes the development calls.

The highest finish for a Marussia or Caterham so far this season is 13th place courtesy of Jules Bianchi, and given that the backmarkers seem closer than ever to the midfield I would predict that the current best result is going to be beaten. But by who? And by how much? My prediction is one of the Caterham drivers coming good towards the end of the season and finishing around the 10th/11th mark in another Brazil 2012 style race. Whilst, to the neutral, it might not have the appeal of Red Bull vs Mercedes vs Ferrari vs Lotus, it's going to be one of the most consistent battles all season. And personally, I can't wait to see how this one is going to finish.
-Luke Murphy

I personally am slightly hopeful of Marussia making the jump forward, I'm not entirely sure I have a logical reason why though!