Official: Luiz Razia becomes a full-time driver at Marussia

At the start of the second day of testing at the Jerez circuit, the Marussia team confirmed that Brazilian Luiz Razia will drive the second red and black single-seater this season alongside Max Chilton.

The 2012 GP2 runner-up is thus replacing Timo Glock, whose separation from the Anglo-Russian team for financial reasons was announced a few days ago.

This announcement ends a months-long wait for Razia, who was already the test driver for the Virgin team in 2010. He has also participated in several tests behind the wheel of various single-seaters, including Caterham’s last year. Starting today, he will be driving the MR02 at the Jerez circuit for the second day of the first tests of the 2013 season.

The person in question is obviously very happy about this confirmation: « It’s fantastic to be back with the Marussia F1 team and with pretty much the same group of people I worked with in 2010 when I was a reserve driver. I am very proud to be able to slip into a Formula 1 race seat, particularly with this team. I started this journey with them, as they helped me progress to the highest level. The last two seasons in GP2 have proven that I have what it takes and that I am ready. I am looking forward to starting testing in Jerez, where we will be testing the MR02 for the first time. I am also looking forward to getting to the first race in Melbourne and I am eager to race alongside Max, whom I fought against last season. This year is important for the Marussia F1 team in terms of maintaining the momentum of a very positive 2012 season. I am eager to make a valuable contribution to that. »

For his part, John Booth, the team director, is pleased with this announcement: “We are happy to have finalized our driver line-up, which means we can now focus all our attention on what promises to be a very exciting season in 2013. Luiz is not new to our team, having been a reserve driver during our first season in 2010 and being part of our young driver program. It is therefore very pleasing to have not just one, but two graduates from this training program with us in 2013, and also very exciting because both Luiz and Max showed a lot of potential competing alongside each other in GP2 last season. Luiz is a very fast and tenacious driver who fought hard for second place last year. Together with Max, we have a young yet incredibly ambitious duo and we look forward to seeing what they can achieve.”