Jules Bianchi believes that Marussia has made good progress
The 2013 season for Marussia will likely again come down to a duel with Caterham. However, after coming very close to the 10th place in the world standings in 2012, the Russian team might make things a bit more challenging for the Malaysian team in 2013.
Jules Bianchi hasn’t had the chance to spend much time driving the 2013 Marussia, but his first impressions are positive, and he believes that the Russian team has made significant progress compared to their rival Caterham. It’s true that the French driver immediately proved to be faster than the CT02 driven by Giedo van der Garde on Saturday.
« If you look at the times, we have improved a lot. It’s a little surprise and I’m happy with that. Even for me personally, between Saturday and Sunday there was progress, » explained the Nice native to our colleagues at Autosport.
Despite everything, Bianchi does not want to be overly optimistic and knows that the season starting in a few days will not be a walk in the park: « We don’t know what others are doing, so it’s difficult to quantify the progress made. We have to be realistic. It will be difficult to beat the cars in the pack, but we will do our best. »
The main objective for Marussia will therefore be to close the gap with teams like Sauber, Force India, or Toro Rosso and especially to beat Caterham in the fight for the tenth place in the Constructors’ Championship. A position they nearly secured last year but ultimately went to Tony Fernandes’ team by a narrow margin. This 10th place, synonymous with a financial bonus, will be all the more important as the Russian team seems to be in dire need of liquidity. The departure of Timo Glock and the late replacement of Luiz Razia are clear indications of this.
