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Caterham confident Leafield move will not affect performance during F1 season

Caterham chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne is confident that the team's mid-season move to a new factory will not affect its competitiveness this season

The outfit is moving from its current base in Hingham in Norfolk to the ex-Arrows and Super Aguri base in Leafield in Oxfordshire.

The move is expected to be completed in the August break and although Gascoyne admits that there will inevitably be some disruption, he does not anticipate it being a problem.

"Being realistic, it's not going to be totally straightforward," Gascoyne told AUTOSPORT. "But having said that we got a team up and running from scratch in five months a couple of years ago so we feel we can tackle most things."

"There will be some disruption, but we are hoping to move in the August break where there will be some downtime anyway.

"We don't have to move everything at the same time and it's not as though we are moving out of this [Hingham] factory, so I'm confident that we can manage it."

Gascoyne added that the move is also well-timed because it will come at a time when the final developments slated for the 2012 car are likely to have already been signed off.

"The idea is that we will be finishing on one car and starting on another," he said. "Hopefully people can come back after the two-week break and the drawing office will be fully-fitted and ready to go.

"It also gives us several months to equip Leafield and get it ready. It's an advantage to us not to have rushed into it because we have got time to get it prepared."

It is anticipated that the relocation of the team into the heart of the UK's motorsport valley will boost its ability to recruit personnel. Gascoyne highlighted this as a key advantage for the future.

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