Caterham once again proved they have the reliability they need with a second two-car finish of the season in Malaysia – all they need now is some added speed.

Eastern Daily Press: Dutch driver Giedo van der Garde stayed out of trouble as he brought home his Caterham in Sepang.Dutch driver Giedo van der Garde stayed out of trouble as he brought home his Caterham in Sepang. (Image: Archant)

The Hingham-backed team brought Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde home at Sepang, sandwiched between the two Marussias – with Jules Bianchi taking a useful 13th finish and showing his huge promise.

Team owner Tony Fernandes admitted on Twitter that Caterham are currently running their 2012 car, but hope upgrades in Barcelona come May will give the Leafield crew a step forward.

'Having both cars finish the first two races, including our home race in Malaysia, is a fair reward for the efforts the whole team has put in considering where we are performance-wise at this stage,' said team principal Cyril Abiteboul.

'Charles was an innocent victim in his incident (Juen Eric Vergne hitting the Caterham in the pit lane) and it was a real shame as that seriously hit his chances of fighting against Bianchi, but the team reacted very well and I'm proud of the efforts everyone has put in here and in Melbourne, in races that we knew would be tough.

'Although the general reliability of the cars has been better than a number of bigger teams ahead, we're still having to deal with a number of pretty intense situations that are affecting our ability to control the finer details of our races.

'This time we had issues with our intercom failing, which prevents communication between engineers, our telemetry froze at certain points and the timing software went down, which meant we weren't able to accurately map how the race was unfolding.

'These things go on behind the scenes and while they don't directly affect the performance of the cars they don't help, so we'll make sure we have fixes for each of those in China (April 14).

'Overall, with the strategy we've employed for 2013 and in preparation for 2014 and beyond, we knew the first few races of this season would be tough, but we're not going to deviate from the plan.

'Even though we're running a hybrid car for the first three races we're still close to where we want to be and the updates we have coming will pay dividends.

'We have a long-term goal, one that is built around the whole group we are part of and one that is realistic, sustainable and which will see us right in the mix in the long run.'