Caterham completes Leafield move
Caterham moved in to its new Leafield factory on Monday, with the team finally able to begin work following the enforced summer shutdown.
The team made full use of the fortnight break to complete the switch over from its old Hingham headquarters, where it has been based since it entered F1 back in 2010.
The Leafield base was formerly used by Arrows and Super Aguri, and has been upgraded for the arrival of the Tony Fernandes-led operation.
Caterham technical director Mark Smith told AUTOSPORT earlier this year that the shift of facility would not be a distraction for the outfit.
"We don't expect a great deal of disruption," Smith said. "If you think about the race team, it can go anywhere in the world and be fairly self sufficient, so that side of the business moving to Leafield I don't see as a big issue.
"The side of the business that [includes] our IT infrastructure in terms of design, CAD systems and dynamics, we should be able to do that physical move and get the infrastructure up and running. We use the second wind tunnel at Williams so we are closer to that, so that helps. It is really the manufacturing aspect of it, and what we plan to do is leave a reasonably strong core of that at Hingham.
"The primary structural composite side of the business, the bit that we regard as important to have on site, will be at Leafield, but there will be a manufacturing base at Hingham as well. We are thinking it will be fairly painless."