Caterham's Manfredi Ravetto 'very surprised' by Kamui Kobayashi remarks

Caterham team boss Manfredi Ravetto has said he “cannot understand” Kamui Kobayashi’s comments implying that nothing was wrong with his car after retiring in the Russian GP and insisted the team stopped his CT05 purely on safety grounds.

Kobayashi, whose future at the Leafield-based team has remained uncertain ever since he was dropped for Andre Lotterer for August’s Belgian GP, retired from Sunday’s Sochi race on lap 21 after being told to return to the team’s garage.

The team cited overheating brakes for the retirement but Kobayashi prompted conspiracy theories surrounding the cash-strapped outfit when he suggested that his car had been running fine.

Asked by Sky Sports F1 what had gone wrong with the car, Kobayashi replied: “Actually nothing. I don’t know what happened, just the team decided to stop.”

Then asked to relay what the team had told him over the radio, Kobayashi continued: “Just box [pit], back to box and stop engine. That’s it. I really don’t know what reason. I’m a little bit surprised.”

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Kobayashi’s added in further interviews that mileage concerns may have prompted the retirement, but three days after the race, Caterham have moved to clarify the situation and express their bafflement at their driver’s comments.

“Actually, I was very surprised to hear Kamui referring to some mileage-saving instruction coming from the team's management,” Ravetto said in a Q&A issued by the team.

“We saw via telemetry that there was a potential issue with the brakes and we decided to avoid any risks; Kamui officially confirmed this as well and I’d like to add that he had also asked us to change the previous set before qualifying because he felt some vibration.

“To be clear: yes, we instructed Kamui to retire because the safety of our drivers is our first concern! Regarding Kamui's comment, all I can say – and again, I’m answering with facts – is that the team has continuously made progress since the British Grand Prix, we've managed to qualify very well in the last two races, getting very close to Q2, and in Suzuka we repaired Kamui's heavily damaged car in time for the next session without any problems, so I cannot understand his comment.”

Caterham’s future in F1 has been at the centre of speculation all season with founder and former owner Tony Fernandes following through on a pre-season threat to sell the outfit if their performance didn’t improve by offloading the team to a unknown consortium of Swiss and Middle Eastern investors in July.

The sale has done little to quell reports that Caterham’s place in the sport remains in jeopardy – talk heightened by the visit of the bailiffs to their Leafield headquarters last month – but Ravetto has defended the new owners’ record both on and off the track.

“Knowing that this team, under previous ownership, was due to stop racing before the British Grand Prix, we – the new management – are proud of having completed not only the European season but also the Asian season!” he pointed out.

“This gives us confidence to approach the last three fly-away races in America and the Middle-East with an extra-boost: our performance is steadily improving and recent results plus our great qualifying performance in Sochi are putting us on a level the team has hardly shown previously.
 
“We are on a high and we keep fighting day after day, even if there are a few negative comments or skepticism from some people who would be happy to see us failing: we can live with this, we have no problem at all; what we do is answer with facts, starting with the technical improvement of the car and stabilizing of the team's financial side – but we just want to remind everybody that we are those brave ones who try to firefight; we are not the ones who left the team in a critical status! I can tolerate misinterpretations on everything except this. And, by the way, we historically seem to be quite successful in contradicting the rumour mill...”