Marussia and Pic will skip Jerez
While it was initially planned for the Russian team to head to Jerez with the 2011 car, plans have changed and it is now in Barcelona that Pic and his team will begin their preparation for the 2012 Formula 1 season.
Just like the Mercedes AMG team, Marussia had already planned not to run its 2012 car during the first tests, which will take place from February 7 in Jerez. However, the Russian team had planned to go to Spain with last year’s car to allow Charles Pic to accumulate mileage behind the wheel of a Formula 1.
Today, we learn that these plans have changed and that Marussia will not be in Jerez at the beginning of February. Instead, they will focus on the development of the team’s next single-seater, which is now expected to make its first kilometers only during the last test session held in Barcelona at the beginning of March. John Booth believes that this additional development time will allow the MR01 to be more competitive once on the track.
« We made the decision that we would not go to the Jerez tests, » explains Booth to Autosport.
« As Pat Symonds, our technical consultant, explained, the MR01 will be almost entirely new, with few parts coming from the 2011 car. The new car has some interesting and complex concepts and it takes time to perfect. That is why we decided to start our testing from Barcelona with the MRV-02. We will then introduce the MR01 during the third testing session in Barcelona from March 1st. »
Booth admits that it is not an ideal situation, but he hopes that it will quickly lead to having a reliable single-seater that can accumulate kilometers during these tests on the Spanish circuit.
