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2013 Caterham set to be a development of current car

Caterham will continue to develop the CT01 this year © Sutton Images

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Caterham's 2013 car will be a development of the current CT01 so that the team can continue to work on this year's car later in to the season.

Now in its third season in Formula One, Caterham is attempting to bridge the gap between the back of the grid and the midfield. Although the team remains off the pace of the midfield runners, technical director Mark Smith told ESPNF1 that the team would evolve its current car through to next year before the 2014 regulations dictate a complete re-think.

"We are making the 2013 car very much a development of the current car," Smith said. "So there's not a fundamental shift in what we're doing and therefore we are going to develop this car a little bit further in to this season than we would have done."

Caterham brought a major update to the British Grand Prix, including a new exhaust package, but did not see the impact on performance it had hoped. Smith said he is confident the team will unlock more of the update's performance in the second half of the year.

"Obviously the exhaust system is a key feature in this, and not that it was news to us, but you have to be aware of any performance losses you might be factoring into the package as well as any performance gains. I think that we're focusing on that to release more performance from the overall package.

"It's fairly clearly circuit dependent as well because you're working with an exhaust system where it's quite easy to induce losses from a power perspective by tweaking the exhaust and at some circuits engine power is obviously at more of a premium than others. We need to be mindful of the fact that it's not just a given for every circuit and we need to be very careful that we come up with the best solution at each circuit.

"It wasn't much of a hit using that system in Hungary, but Spa and Monza are entirely different so we are working on developments to reduce any of the losses that the system might have going forward, particularly focusing on those races."

Read ESPNF1's full interview with Mark Smith here

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.