Have Caterham and Marussia Closed the Gap to the Bigger Formula 1 Teams?

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: January 12, 2014

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For the 2010 Formula One season, the FIA allowed three new entrants to join the grid. With the addition of Lotus, Virgin and Hispania Racing (HRT), the number of constructors expanded to 12, the first time since 1995 that more than 11 teams participated in a season.

At the time, Virgin boss Richard Branson bragged that, "This will be the lowest-budget team in Formula One. Money's not everything," according to The Guardian.

Meanwhile, when asked how long it would take before Lotus could challenge the established teams, then-chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne told Formula1.com that, "A small, efficient operation has to look at doing so in three to five years, and that's our aim."

2014 will be the fifth season since the new teams joined. HRT folded after the 2012 season, Lotus changed its name to Caterham and Virgin was rebranded as Marussia.



In four seasons of racing, Caterham and Marussia have yet to score their first points and, to most outside observers, it may not look as though any progress is being made. But while the points have not yet come, there are other ways to measure whether the gap between the new(ish) teams and the more established constructors is closing.

One statistic worthy of examination is qualifying times. In Q1, when the cars are running on low fuel and the lower-echelon teams are scrapping to make it through to Q2, we can be fairly certain that drivers for those teams are registering the fastest times their cars are capable of.

With that in mind, the following chart shows the average gap between the highest-ranked Caterham and Marussia and the lowest-ranked car from the established teams in Q1, for the last four seasons:



While not perfect, these numbers do give us an idea of where the two teams stand relative to each other and to the sport's more-established teams.

Recently, Marussia team principal John Booth told E...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Formula 1

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