The 2013 Caterham CT03 has technical features that distinguish it from its predecessor, CT01, and it will race in an updated livery which sees the team’s green and yellow paint-scheme refreshed and lightened for the season ahead. (CT02 if you were wondering is the forthcoming Caterham road car)
Mark Smith, Technical Director, Caterham F1 Team: “CT03 is the first car we have produced in the Leafield Technical Centre so it marks an important milestone in the development of our team. The season ahead presented us with an interesting challenge early in the design process as it is the last year of the current regulations before the introduction of the new engine rules in 2014. With that in mind we decided that CT03 would be an evolution of CT01 rather than a complete re-design, allowing us to focus our resources on developing areas of last year’s package where opportunities would give us the greatest return, whilst also beginning work on the 2014 package”
“We have made a number of significant changes to the car that takes it from the package that gained us tenth place in the 2012 Championship in Brazil into CT03. Among the most obvious are around the lower chassis where the sidepods have been significantly undercut to improve airflow to the rear of the car”.
“The diffuser, engine cover and cooling exits have also seen major changes and there are more subtle improvements to other areas of the car, such as the sidepod turning vanes and the lower tea-tray area. This is the package we will take to race one in Australia and as part of the 2013 upgrade program we will then bring new front and rear wings and a new diffuser soon after the start of the season. However, the CT03 car that starts testing in Spain on day one in Jerez is not the only visible change amongst a number of other important developments at Caterham this winter. Back in Leafield, we are fast completing our own ‘driver in the loop’ simulator, created with the support of Dell and powered by Alienware. This is a major asset for our team that puts us on a par with any of our competitors and constitutes another example of the long-term plans we are activating that will help us continue to grow and develop into the team we know we can become”
Caterham has opted against using a full ‘vanity panel’ on the nose of the car, leaving the hump evident, though rather more sculped than in 2012.
The pull rod suspension on the car is also retained at the rear, as dictated by the Red Bull Technologies transmission used on the CT03. Note the Williams style ‘monkey seat’ winglet.
In the exhaust channel there is a very interesting vane, covered in a ceramic thermal barrier coating. The dimple at the top of the exhaust channel is also interesting.
The Caterham sports the now common turning vanes above the sidepod duct. 
The CT03 is a very mild evolution of the CT01, and this is especially apparent around the roll hoop of the car. This area along with the front of the sidepods is always a good place to look to see if a car has a new tub or not as these are areas that cannot be changed without fully re-crash testing the car. Comparing the CT03 roll hoop (above) with the CT01 (below) shows great similarity.
Whilst the rear leg of the hoop support is wider on the CT03 that could simply be shrouding, practically every roll hoop in F1 is made of metal and shrouded in carbon fibre and the Caterham is no different in that respect. However the CT03 does have a new tub according to the teams Press Officer Tom Webb who told RCE that “It’s evolved from it (The CT01 tub)– there are quite a few changes but it isn’t the same, hence the new identification.”
Test 01: Jerez
Chassis: CT03-05
The Caterham chassis numbering could be considered confusing, with the car running at Jerez dubbed CT03-05, suggesting it is the 5th CT03 built. But it is in fact the first. The CT03 is very closely based on the CT01 so much so that the chassis numbering has continued from the four CT01 tubs. The numbering is as follows:
CT01-01
CT01-02
CT01-03
CT01-04
CT03-05
CT02-01 will be the first chassis of Caterhams forthcoming road car and is unrelated to the CT01 and CT03. Not forgetting that the Lotus T28 and Lotus T127 are also part of the same family of cars. Further adding to the confusion is the forthcoming Lotus T128 LMP2 which is nothing to do with any of the above at all. The Lotus E20 and Lotus E21 are built by the F1 team based at Enstone (Renault, Benetton, Toleman) and also have no relation to the Caterham family of cars which are built in either Hingham, Norfolk or at the teams new factory in Leafield, Oxfordshire
The early runs of the CT03 gave a good opportunity to have a look at the back of the car and here there is much carry over from the CT01. However note the ‘monkey seat’ winglet sprouting from the rear crash structure.
The lower tea tray area is one that Caterham single out as a development area on the CT03.
In a press conference at Jerez James Allison Technical Director of the Lotus F1 team was asked if he had seen anything of interest on the other new cars, his reply was certainly interesting “It’s a crap answer but I’ve not had time to look at any other cars but our own, bit there is one feature of the Caterham’s exhaust that I don’t think will be there when we get to Melbourne.”
The feature in question is what appears to be a flow conditioner in the exhaust channel of the Caterham CT03. Lotus has near identical image to the one seen here as the Lotus pit lane photographer was stood next to Racecar’s when they were taken! The conditioner appears to guide the exhaust gasses toward the crucial area at the rear of the car floor which would give the blown diffuser effect. The element is coated in a ceramic thermal barrier coating and is likely to be made of metal not carbon fibre.
The design may fall foul of article 5.8.4 of the 2013 Technical regulations which state that.
Once the exhaust tailpipes, the bodywork required by Article 3.8.4 and any apertures permitted by Article 3.8.5 have been fully defined there must be no bodywork lying within a right circular truncated cone which :
a) Shares a common axis with that of the last 100mm of the tailpipe.
b) Has a forward diameter equal to that of each exhaust exit.
c) Starts at the exit of the tailpipe and extends rearwards as far as the rear wheel centre line.
d) Has a half-cone angle of 3° such that the cone has its larger diameter at the rear wheel centre line.
Furthermore, there must be a view from above, the side, or any intermediate angle perpendicular to the car centre line, from which the truncated cone is not obscured by any bodywork lying more than 50mm forward of the rear wheel centre line.
No formal protest can be lodged yet as in testing the full regulations do not apply.
Caterham has responded to the comments made by Lotus with team boss Cyril Abiteboul stating to Autosport magazine that “My understanding is that it is within the regulations, we tested it last year and nobody made any remark about it. We are quite flattered that James Allison is paying attention to what is happening at our exhausts. There are different ways of looking at it, and definitely we are outside of the cone. The purpose of testing is to test and to understand what is happening. One of the areas that everybody is looking at is to understand how the exhaust effect is working, and where it is going. Therefore anything that helps you better measure that is welcome, at least for the tests. We will see whatever clarification is made before the first race.”
Caterham could keep the turning vane outside of the exhaust cone by giving the exhaust exit a slight upward angle (as it appears to feature above) thus keeping most of the exit channel outside of the cone. But the exhaust plume could still pass through the channel and over the turning vane. The cooling hole above the exhaust exit could serve some purpose in this function.
It can be seen above that the cooling duct above the exhaust is likely to influence the exhaust plume, this duct could flow direct from the sidepod and effectively pen in the exhaust plume. All pure speculation of course as without a wind tunnel it is very hard to tell how the fluid structures interact.
TEST 02: BARCELONA
Chassis: CT03-06
Caterham has revealed to Racecar Engineering that whilst the CT03 does feature a new chassis the CT01 could be built up into a CT03 the designs are so similar. The tubs were built at Hingham, Norfolk instead of the teams new base in Leafield, Oxfordshire where the composites department is currently being upgraded.
Caterham continued to develop its controversial exhaust vane, seen here covered in a ceramic thermal barrier coating.
A nice look at the rear end of the CT03, note the small vent in the upper edge of the diffuser. The abrupt end of the plate on the outer edge is an interesting feature.
TEST 03: BARCELONA
Chassis: CT03-06
It has been suggested that Caterham has already switched its attention to the 2014 car already. The CT03 is really just an upgraded CT01 and few updates have been apparent in pre-season testing. This may not be a bad strategy for the team, by focussing its resources on the 2014 car it will likely jump up the grid significantly, unless the likes of Force India and Toro Rosso take the same approach. Caterham will roll out the CT02 road car next year, though perhaps only in concept form, so strong F1 results would help its marketing. In 2013 that simply is not the case.
The CT03 is unusual in that it does not have a stay on the front splitter, something which is also the case with the Marussia MR02.
At the second Barcelona test the CT03 was no longer fitted with the controversial turning vane in its exhaust channel.
RACE 01: ALBERT PARK, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Car: 20
Chassis: CT03-06
Result: 16th
Car: 21
Chassis: CT03-05
Result: 18th
Charles Pic: “We started on the supersofts and our pace was ok for the first stint but the tyres dropped off very quickly. In contrast, when we went onto the mediums the degradation levels were very good so we were able to push the second stint much longer than we’d planned and that gave us a chance to fight. Unfortunately towards the end of the race we had a KERS failure which obviously cut our outright pace and prevented us from taking full advantage of the good tyre wear we saw on the primes.We know that it’s going to be similar to this for the first few races, but with what we have coming it’s going to be a really interesting season. We have quite a few small details we need to work on for the next race but it’s good to have a real fight on our hands, good for the team and the fans so let’s see how this progresses.”
RACE 02: SEPANG, SELANGOR, MALAYSIA
Car: 20
Chassis: CT03-06
Result: 14th
Car: 21
Chassis: CT03-05
Result: 15th
Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal: “Having both cars finish the first two races, including our home race in Malaysia, is a fair reward for the efforts the whole team has put in, considering where we are performance-wise at this stage of the season. Both drivers again had very good starts and they were running well for the first part of the race. The incident Charles was an innocent victim of in his first stop was a real shame as that seriously hit his chances of fighting against Bianchi, but the team reacted very well and I’m proud of the efforts everyone has put in here and in Melbourne, in races that we knew would be tough.
Although the general reliability of the cars has been better than a number of bigger teams ahead, we’re still having to deal with a number of pretty intense situations that are affecting our ability to control the finer details of our races. This time we had issues with our intercom failing, which prevents communication between engineers, our telemetry froze at certain points and the timing software went down which meant we weren’t able to accurately map how the race was unfolding. These things go on behind the scenes and while they don’t directly affect the performance of the cars they don’t help, so we’ll make sure we have fixes for each of those in China.
Overall, with the strategy we’ve employed for 2013 and in preparation for 2014 and beyond we knew the first few races of this season would be tough, but we’re not going to deviate from the plan. Even though we’re running a hybrid car for the first three races we’re still close to where we want to be and the updates we have coming will pay dividends. We have a long-term goal, one that is built around the whole group we are part of and one that is realistic, sustainable and which will see us right in the mix in the long run.”
RACE 03: JIADING, SHANGHAI, CHINA
Car: 20
Chassis: CT03-06
Result: 16th
Car: 21
Chassis: CT03-05
Result: 18th
RACE 04: SAKHIR, BAHRAIN
Car: 20
Chassis: CT03-06
Result: 17th
Car: 21
Chassis: CT03-05
Result: 21st
Caterham arrived in Bahrain with a small update kit for the CT03 which appeared to show a 0.5 second per lap benefit, however this may be more down to the drivers as the kit was only fitted to one of the two cars.
A new rear wing featured a slightly more curved main plane (above) compared to the launch spec (below)
A new Red Bull style sidepod wing was also included in the kit.
Compare with the old spec pod wing which was run on the other CT03
Caterham looked at the nose as another area to try to make a step forward, and has adopted a Lotus style pelican underside (below)
Compare it with the CT01 nose which was used on the other CT03 at Bahrain.
RACE 05: MONTMELO, CATALUNYA, SPAIN
Car: 20
Chassis: CT03-06
Result: 17th
Car: 21
Chassis: CT03-04
Result: DNF (loose wheel)
Mark Smith: The strategy that we had, for a number of reasons, was to introduce a car for the first four races that was probably 30 per cent of what would ordinarily be the new season’s car. So, yes, it’s an upgrade but in actual fact it takes us to the point that ordinarily this would have been our roll-out car. And that has to do with understanding the way we model things and not committing to things. We felt that had we have done the car in the normal timescale we would have been taking parts to production and to the car that we weren’t particularly ready with in terms of our understanding and modeling and so on. So it’s more a case that this is the new car.
The CT03 sported a major upgrade in Spain, most obviously with the adoption of a new nose, with a ‘vanity panel’ covering the hump. Under the nose the shape used in Baharain was carried over.
Also included in the update was a new pod wing, similar in design to that seen on the Sauber and Red Bull. Another view can be seen below.
A revised front wing was fitted to the CT03, note the end plate details below.
More than one version of the wing was run note the difference in this version to the one above
RACE 06: LA CONDAMINE, MONTE CARLO, MONACO
Car: 20
Chassis: CT03-06
Result: DNF (fire fire, wheres Heikki? – Gearbox)
Car: 21
Chassis: CT03-04
Result: 15th
The CT03 used a new front wing at Monaco, with changes to the central upper element. The forward upper elements are also new. Compare the two wing specs used in free practice (above and below)
Before the race on the number 20 car the left front wishbone gator was changed along with two plank fixing helicoils, the left front brake calliper temperature sensor, and the right hand o ring to the fuel fill and vent QD’s. On the 21 car the right front brake duct internals were changed as was the upright.
RACE 07: ÎLE NOTRE-DAME, MONTREAL, CANADA
Car: 20
Chassis: CT03-06
Result: 18th
Car: 21
Chassis: CT03-04
Result: DNF (Contact)
RACE 08: SILVERSTONE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, ENGLAND
Car: 20
Chassis: CT03-06
Result: 15th
Car: 21
Chassis: CT03-04
Result: 18th
RACE 09: NURBURG, RHINELAND-PALATINATE, GERMANY
Car: 20
Chassis: CT03-06
Result: 15th
Car: 21
Chassis: CT03-04
Result: 18th
RACE 10: MOGYORÓD, PEST, HUNGARY
Car: 20
Chassis: CT03-06
Result: 15th
Car: 21
Chassis: CT03-04
Result: 14th
Curiously Caterham reverted to the stepped nose from earlier in the season in Free Practice, this may be related to the use of the revised tyres at the race which are similar to those used in 2012.
HALF TERM REPORT BY CYRIL ABITEBOUL
Leafield Technical Centre – 1st August 2013
Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal of Caterham F1 Team, reflected on the year so far and what is to come for the second half of the season for the Leafield based team.
“It’s been an interesting first half of season for the team and for me personally. This is another great F1 season, with battles pretty much everywhere. As far as we’re concerned, we’ve been fighting with Marussia who have done a great job over the last year. We started the season clearly behind them, but over the last three races a comfortable gap has appeared between us and them, which shows our rate of development. That’s also helped us on a couple of occasions to race a Williams or a Sauber and that shows where we’re setting our targets.
“This progress is positive for the whole team because it shows the aggressive development plan we have for 2013 is delivering. We made the decision to carry over the 2012 car to the start of this season for a number of reasons, in particular because this time last year – which is typically the time of the year when you need to produce tooling for the next season’s car – the team was busy moving from one side of the UK to the other, and now we are back ahead of Marussia with the chance to reclaim tenth in the second half of the year.
“So far this performance gain has not turned into a point or an improved championship position as this is not completely in our hands, but each time we bring new parts to the track, not only do we potentially make progress, but we also give ourselves the chance to learn more about us, our strengths and our weaknesses and to give motivation to our staff whether at the factory or at the track. We must not forget that we are a young group, with a limited history together, but we are growing every day.
“Since moving to Leafield last August, and especially since the start of 2013, the focus was on making sure the factory was up and running and putting ourselves in control of our manufacturing process, reducing lead times and increasing economic efficiency, with the right level of integration. Although some refinements are always possible, this will be fully completed right after the summer shutdown. During the second part of the year, we will push to be able to develop more and more accurately in the virtualised environment, the route that our industry is heading towards.
“In parallel with the improvements we’re making to the facilities, we must continue to invest in people, raising the experience level and making sure we are future proofed, particularly with new aero and engine regulations just around the corner. We are doing this so we can take advantage of the opportunities 2014 will bring and we’re already above our initial targets for next year, so much so we’re looking at reviewing them for more aggressive ones! The car has been in the tunnel for a while now, and we’re seeing good numbers, all of which is being achieved while we keep progressing this year, hopefully showing without a doubt that we are on the right path to reduce the gap to the midfield.
“Away from the track, the JV with Renault is progressing well, giving us a solid, stable platform for our team and Caterham Group in the future. This also gives us a duty to be where we should be in terms of performance so we can promote the Caterham brand, which has some very busy years ahead, not least to create the global awareness level required to turn our ambitious product plans into commercial success.
“Back to racing, and looking at our drivers – as a rookie, Giedo has had his challenges, but his last race in Hungary was a good reward for his determination and his positive attitude that the team loves. He’s also going to be helped by the new tyres which will definitely suit his style better than those used for the first nine races.
“For Charles, after only one year of experience with Marussia, he immediately made a positive contribution to our development strategy this year and that’s a clear sign of his maturity and of his determination. It’s possible the new tyres take away one of his strengths over the other drivers as he was very good at tyre management, but therefore he must adapt and develop other skills in terms of pure race pace to cope with what’s to come. He demands a lot from himself and from us, and I like that. I think that sort of spirit will help push the team forwards.
“Away from F1 we are also having a challenging season in GP2. However, as this side of our motorsport activities, like the Caterham Racing Academy, is a very important pillar of our values and our future, with Mia Sharizman we have been making changes to address this and we are already preparing for next season so we do not start in the same position we found ourselves earlier this year.
“Overall, the season so far has been one of highs and lows. A personal low was Melbourne FP2 when we were nowhere. Marussia was fast, their drivers had settled very quickly and we knew that our car would not evolve for a couple of races.
“However, I have a personal high every time I walk into the factory and realise that I am part of this adventure. Starting an F1 team from scratch was a pretty crazy idea of Tony’s back in 2009, but I am happy to be part of it and am looking forward to the next chapter in our story.”
