JANUARY 19, 2012

Caterham will move in August

Caterham F1 Team, formerly Lotus Racing, has delayed its planned factory move until August.

Caterham F1 Team, formerly Lotus Racing, has delayed its planned factory move until August.

Speaking about the move from its Hingham, Norfolk, UK base to Leafield in Oxfordshire, team principal Tony Fernandes said at Monza last year: "I think the best scenario is that the cars leave for Australia next year and come back to a new home."

Now, however, the F1 team and GP2 Caterham Racing will make the move in the summer, when F1 has its month's break.

"The factory in Hingham has been our home since we were first granted our entry into the F1 World Championship and it has served us extremely well, giving us the perfect platform to establish both the F1 team and our GP2 team in the first stages of our development," Fernandes explained.

"However, as both teams grew, and in the planning process we went through when acquiring Caterham Cars and establishing the wider Caterham Group, it became clear that we needed to house the car company in the same facility as our racing operations, to give us the best chance to meet our future goals on and off track.

"We began looking for a site that could be adapted to suit the future needs of our racing and road car operations and Leafield quickly became the obvious choice.

"We propose moving Caterham Cars into a new, bespoke development and production facility on the same site in due course. We are able to build the new home for Caterham Cars from the ground up on the Leafield site, giving us a permanent home in the perfect location for two of the primary arms of the Caterham Group."

Fernandes earlier acknowledged that recruiting F1 staff will be easier in Oxfordshire's heartland, but says: "The factory in Hingham is where the dream began, and we will continue to develop that site into the new permanent home for Caterham Composites.

"We have cutting edge technical and production facilities already in operation in the factory, now focused on the F1 and GP2 teams, and we will be expanding those facilities to help meet the future demands of Caterham Composites' clients in all the markets that company will operate in, continuing to provide jobs and investment in Norfolk in world class, cutting edge technology.

"Caterham Technology and Innovation will also remain in Norfolk, demonstrating our long-term commitment to our first home."