Caterham F1 team pins hopes on new front wing to take step forward

The Leafield-based team is hoping to raise itself off the bottom of the constructors' championship in a bid to secure lucrative commercial rights income.

It delivered the first part of an update package in Belgium in August, and team principal Manfredi Ravetto claims that new parts should keep Caterham pushing forwards from this weekend.

"We are planning to run a new front wing in Suzuka and this should allow us to catch, and to properly catch up, on the main mid-grid pack," he told AUTOSPORT.

"We don't see Marussia as a direct competitor any more.

"We expect to catch up on Sauber and Lotus."

2015 PREPARATIONS UNDER WAY

Although not finishing in the top 10 of the constructors' championship would be a blow to Caterham, Ravetto insists the team's future does not depend upon it.

He said progress is already well underway on its 2015 car - which is being worked on in the windtunnel at Toyota's Cologne facility.

"We had another session last week and we are already at an advanced stage," he said.

"We are having some very positive feedback from the new nosecone and from the front wing pillars, and we see some significant aero gains.

"John Iley [performance director] is pushing like hell on building a good car together with his team, and on our side we are pushing like hell to provide him with the finance necessary to do this.

"Having said this, we are not in a position to dismiss development of the 2014 car because we must fight for the 10th place.

"But our 2015 plan is in place regardless of achieving the 10th place, although I don't need to say achieving the 10th place is of huge, huge importance.

"We also have to be very realistic because we inherited a very, very difficult situation from previous ownership."

Ravetto made clear that the team had been working flat out to keep the outfit's finances in shape, and had dealt with a number of unexpected financial situations since taking over.

"In this team the surprises never end," he said.

"This is not nice because I believe that we restructured things in a way that we could manage the team, and we could live from what we generate in terms of income.

"If we keep having 10 surprises per day then we have to keep doing 10 miracles per day. So my concern is what happens when we run out of miracles."