First Look-Caterham

At first look, the new Caterham looks like the exact opposite of the Marussia. While the Marussia looks generic and rather plain, the Caterham is busy and filled with different ideas from last year. Such as the small flaps on the tops of the sidepods. Or the stepped nose that resembles the one from the Mercedes from 2012. The most obvious difference, is probably the long end to the nose. It is considerably longer than the one from last year. Then at the end, the connecting pieces between the wing and the body are straight, as opposed to on say, the Red Bull, the Ferrari, the Mercedes, the Lotus, you get the idea. The pieces a little off the sidepods are split and are two as opposed to one. The airbox is circular, the underside is curved outwards, the front wing looks a lot different than the other cars. It appears as if the Caterham might be a case of to many ideas at one time. Then we come to the exhaust. This part, can make or break a car, and on the Caterham, it's more likely to break it. On the first day at Barcelona yesterday, the FIA dropped the bombshell that both the Williams and the Caterham's exhaust systems are illegal. This presents a huge issue for the team, as some teams spend the majority of their resources on the exhaust, and Caterham will only have one opportunity to test it. So, the prediction: the new Caterham is a blend of a lot of different interesting ideas, however it is more likely to be leapfrogged by Marussia than to pass STR in the running order.