Friday: Bianchi and Chilton deliver strong performances with Marussia
The two rookie starters, Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton, are thrilled with their first official practice session with Marussia. The team even outperformed its main rival, Caterham. This is enough to motivate them for the rest of the weekend and to continue their work in the right direction.
Jules Bianchi – 19th and 19th
« It was a very good day, first for the team and then for me, so I am very happy given that it’s only my third day in the car. Everything worked really well and I’m sure it’s the same for the other teams as well since it’s only the first day. But it’s very encouraging to know that, even if we have a good base today, there is much more to come. We completed a detailed program with quite a bit of mileage for the car, so we have a large amount of information to analyze for tomorrow. The car is performing well, but we have a lot of understeer, and we need to improve on that issue. As for the track, I really like it. It takes a bit of time to get used to at first, but once you have it under control, it’s fantastic and now I can’t wait to do even more tomorrow. »
Max Chilton – 20th and 21st
« Our goal today was to learn the Albert Park track as quickly as possible and then start gathering a lot of information with the car and the tires, so I am quite happy with what we have achieved compared to our schedule. Now we can start focusing on pure performance, and I think tomorrow we will have a clearer idea of the current situation compared to the other cars. Even at this stage, I think we can be positive about our performance compared to our direct competitors and the car has shown some real promise. It’s a nice reward for all the hard work we’ve done over the winter and during testing. Albert Park is an incredible circuit and I have loved every second so far. Tomorrow will be another important step in my rookie weekend with my first Formula 1 qualification and I am very excited!
