- Caterham
Upgrades can help take fight to Marussia - Kobayashi
Kamui Kobayashi is hoping upgrades Caterham is bringing to Shanghai can help it fight back against Marussia in its personal battle at the foot of the constructors' championship.
The pendulum has swung back and forth between both teams already this season, with Max Chilton's 13th finish in Bahrain giving Marussia the coveted lead in the standings. Caterham had been in front after Malaysia and Kobayashi is confident the team has the pace to regain the initiative over those teams around it in China.
"We obviously want to head back to Europe in a good position so everyone's working flat out to help us do that," Kobayashi said. "We have a couple of new parts coming in China before the bigger package everyone brings to Spain, but we also have to make sure we play to our strengths.
"We have a small advantage in pure pace over our direct rivals which put us in a strong position for most of the Bahrain race, right up until the final stint which ended with a disappointing result. We have to use that performance on Sunday to help us get back to where we want to be, and to build on that at every race."
Kobayashi is hoping to draw on his past experience at the China circuit to get the most out of the weekend.
"Shanghai is a really good challenge technically. The last time I raced there in 2012 I qualified fourth, the highest qualifying position of my career and my team at that point. I actually started third after Lewis had an issue but then the car had a problem with the launch and I lost a lot of places off the line.
"While I know we won't be starting that high this year, it would still be good to have a better race in 2014, and the whole team is working as hard as possible to help us do that."
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