F1: Booth Pleased Despite Marussia Dramas

Formula 1

F1: Booth Pleased Despite Marussia Dramas

Marussia gets off track in Jerez...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted February 08, 2013 Jerez, ES

The car belonging to Max Chilton of Great Britain and Marussia is recovered spinning off the track during Formula One winter testing at Circuito de Jerez on February 5, 2013 in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. (Photo: Getty Images)

Marussia endured mixed fortunes in Jerez this week as the new MR02 was hampered by a variety of gremlins while rookies Max Chilton and Luiz Razia were in dire need of mileage.

However the fact that the car was in action early already means that the team is better off than in previous years.

“We leave Jerez today feeling very encouraged with the understanding we have achieved of the MR02 and the progress we have made gathering data to feed back into the development cycle,” said team boss John Booth.

“The week has not been without its frustrations, but that’s all part and parcel of pre-season testing and we are naturally keen to find any issues with the package early so we can iron them out for the next two tests and the season. In the free air we have achieved out on track, we have taken great encouragement from the baseline performance of the car and the obvious potential for development as the season progresses.

“We’ve had a very busy week with our new drivers, bringing them further into the fold - particularly Luiz, who hasn’t had the benefit of driving our 2012 package. Both he and Max have performed very well, and even at this early stage we can see that we are in for an exciting season as they reveal even more of their own potential. Importantly, they are working well together, which will be key to extracting the maximum from team and car this season.”

Booth stressed that the mileage was invaluable: “Perhaps the most satisfying thing about this week’s test is the fact that we are in completely different shape to how we were this time last year. Heading into Australia we had just 100kms of mileage to our name, whereas we leave Jerez tonight having achieved almost 1000kms of running and a good deal of data for the engineers to pore over next week.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 28th season as a racing journalist in 2012. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.