F1: Marussia Confident In Major Upgrade

Formula 1

F1: Marussia Confident In Major Upgrade

Marussia will roll out a significant upgrade to its car at Silverstone...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted June 29, 2012 Balen (BEL)

The 2012 Marussia car has struggled so far this season. (Photo: Getty Images)

The Marussia team is hoping to take a step forward for its home race at Silverstone as it introduces what it describes as the first major product of its wind tunnel program.

This year’s car was still designed by CFD as the team began a gradual move to wind tunnel research for developing the car.

The new package will be tried by test driver Maria de Villota in straightline running next week.

“We have a fairly significant upgrade for this race, comprising a new rear wing, exhausts, floor and side pods,” said team principal John Booth. “I would have to describe this as our ‘first proper wind-tunnel generated upgrade of the season.'

“We’ve had some smaller parts in Malaysia and China, and a few small iterations recently, but this is the first fully developed package that is not just a modification of existing elements.

“That is a big result in itself, aside from the performance step we hope it will bring us, as it means we have caught up with ourselves in terms of the diligent way in which we have approached and developed our technical partnership [with McLaren].

“We look forward to seeing what this brings, both at Silverstone and at Duxford Airfield beforehand, when we will be integrating the developments into our correlation program. Duxford is also the first of our test driver Maria De Villota’s scheduled track days. She has been waiting patiently all year for this date to come around, so we look forward to seeing her in the car for the first time.”

Meanwhile, Timo Glock, who missed the Valencia race, will be fit for Silverstone.

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.