Marussia (Preview F1)

Since Virgin joined F1 back in 2010, things have been difficult for the team with some silly mistakes making it impossible for the team to compete properly and make progresses.

The team is now called Marussia and after last year disastrous season, where they have fallen further behind the pace out the front runners, and ending up fighting with HRT for the bottom places.

Things don’t seem to look any better this year as Marussia has faced several problems with crash tests, and at some point people where starting to ask if they would have a car ready for the start of the season. It was narrow but they have it, but they weren’t able to test yet. So nobody knows what can come from the team.

This year Marussia welcome one of the season’s rookies, Charles Pic, who joins Timo Glock on the team’s lineup.

The MR01 is Marussia F1 Team’s contender for the 2012 season

The MR01 is the product of a ground-up re-evaluation of the way the team designs its racing cars. As such, the car is almost entirely ‘new’ with very few carryover components from last year’s MVR-02. This presented the design team, led by Technical Consultant Pat Symonds, with the challenge of going back to basics to produce a solid mechanical package, whilst maintaining an eye towards achieving the incremental performance steps required to move the team forward.

In fact with the MR01 left behind the idea of not using the windtunnel for the development of the car, thus being a major step forward for the team for 2012.

The car had many struggles with crash testing and only got the approval for the 2012 season at the end of pre-season testing. Having missed all three rounds of Formula 1 testing with the new car, the MR01 only got a very limited number of laps around Silverstone on what was technically a filming day for the team.

Quotes:

Timo Glock

"The year's only just started but my team has already been hard at work. We're all hoping that our hard work will soon be rewarded with the success we deserve. As a team with a Russian edge to it, our objective is to make the country of our major shareholder proud in Sotchi in 2014. Until then it's going to be a long and bumpy ride. Our partnerships with Pat Symonds and McLaren are very important milestones in our development process, however. When I look in the eyes of my colleagues at our works and see that will to succeed, I just can't imagine this commitment remaining unsuccessful for any real length of time."

Charles Pic

“I’m very happy to be making the step up to Formula One with Marussia Virgin Racing. As a driver you always feel you are ready for the next opportunity but in Abu Dhabi last week it was a tough test. The team gave me some fantastic opportunities to learn new things but I also knew that I had to impress them and show them I was ready to do a good job. I was pleased with my performance, and obviously the team were too, so a very good start but this is just the beginning and I know that a lot of hard work is ahead of me to reward this chance.

“I like the team a lot; we worked well together in the test and I feel very comfortable. They want to do things the right way and I can see that there is a lot of determination to succeed, so it is very special for me to be part of that. I’m looking forward to working hard in every area over the winter to ensure I am ready for the start of testing and my first Grand Prix.”