Caterham have confirmed they are looking to leave Leafield and move into a new headquarters as part of ongoing restructuring and stabilising efforts.
Team principal Manfredi Ravetto said the team are aware they still face 'bumpy roads' in their fight to revive their fortunes, but said recent development efforts had paid off, boosting confidence and taking the team to a new level of performance.
"For avoidance of any doubt, Leafield remains the team's base, even though it's no secret that we are looking for a more suitable alternative," Ravetto said in an interview posted on Caterham's official site. "We look forward to the final three races of the season; we will keep fighting, we will keep improving and we will introduce some positive surprises: stay tuned!
"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 scepticism from some people who would be happy to see us failing. What we do is answer with facts, starting with the technical improvement of the car and stabilising 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.
"We know there are still some bumpy roads ahead and we don't expect an easy ride, but we will deal with each situation as it arrives."
Ravetto also moved to clarify the reasons behind Kamui Kobayashi's retirement in Russia, adding: "I was very surprised to hear Kamui referring to some mileage-saving instruction coming from the team's management: we saw via telemetry that there was a potential issue with the brakes and we decided to avoid any risks. To be clear: we instructed Kamui to retire because the safety of our drivers is our first concern."
Caterham remain 11th in this year's constructors' championship. Ravetto was installed as team principal in September, after Christijan Albers departed the role less than two months after taking over the day-to-day running of the team following a takeover by a consortium of Swiss and Middle Eastern investors.
(source: f1.com)
