Friday: Marussia can do better
The Marussia drivers were hampered by minor issues today in Melbourne, but they still managed to complete valuable laps to gather data and better prepare for the next two days.
Jules Bianchi (No.17) – 16th and 17th
The Frenchman was delighted to get back into the cockpit of a Formula 1 car for the season’s restart. Not everything went perfectly, but he was still able to get some work done: « First of all, it’s great to be back in competition and at the place where it all started 12 months ago. Things are very different this time, and we expected a tough day today. Free practice 1 was a challenge as we worked to resolve some software issues, but this afternoon was much better, and we were able to start digging a bit deeper in terms of race preparation and testing the car’s reliability, which was promising. We also saw encouraging signs from the low-fuel simulation run. »
Bianchi believes there is still much to be done, particularly with the new features introduced for this first Grand Prix: « There is a lot of work to be done to try to understand the procedures and evaluate the new developments we have for this weekend.
Max Chilton (No. 4) – 17th and 19th
On the British side, not everything was perfect either, but thankfully the day ended well: The first two sessions were a bit like night and day because we really had a positive second session compared to the issues encountered just before. The second session was not entirely without problems and we had to make some adjustments to suit the car to my liking, but at least we have a good pace and were able to sign some good laps, which was necessary for evaluation.
Chilton is confident about the potential for progress with his single-seater: « We are still just scratching the surface and there are many things we can do to improve the car here and for the upcoming races, but it’s a single-seater I have confidence in and that we can develop, so I am confident. »
