Gascoyne given expanded Caterham remit

Mike Gascoyne has been appointed the Chief Technical Officer of the entire Caterham Group, expanding on his previous role of Caterham F1 CTO, which will now be taken over by Mark Smith.

The new appointment will mean that Gascoyne’s talents will now be spread to Caterham Cars and Caterham Technology & Innovation, as well as taking a deeper step into the Caterham-owned GP2 team and the new Arden Caterham Formula Renault 3.5 squad.

“My new role will now give me the chance to help drive value across the whole group through the creation and delivery of new projects in all the sectors we are already working in,” said Gascoyne of his new role.

The increased workload for Gascoyne will also see him coordinate overall strategic technical projects across each of the Caterham Group companies, leaving the Briton’s long-time colleague Mark Smith to lead the F1 team’s technical side on a day-to-day basis. Gascoyne confirmed on Twitter that he will still attend “most races” with Caterham, however.

“Mark Smith is exactly the right person to step up to the broader role he will now be taking on in the F1 team,” added Gascoyne in the team statement.

The announcement of Gascoyne's move into a broader role within the Caterham Group comes a week after a promising first pre-season test for the CT01 he oversaw the design of – Gascoyne describing it as the best first test he has been involved in throughout his entire career – and has been followed hot on the heels of news that Jarno Trulli has been replaced in the race team’s driver line-up by Vitaly Petrov.

Gascoyne has been a long-time ally of Trulli’s, having previously worked with the veteran at Jordan, Renault and Toyota, and was key figure in enticing the Italian to join the then Lotus squad ahead of its debut season in 2010.

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