Katy's Marussia Moments

(c) Octane Photographic

Katy McConnachie is one of Marussia's biggest fans. If you follow her on twitter you will constantly see her admiration for the team, she is very passionate. She is also a young writer, like me, and I gave her the chance to write a 3 part series on her favourite team, take it away Katy.

In late 2011 the Marussia Virgin Racing team came to the decision that they would become the Marussia F1 Team for the 2012 Formula 1 season. It was also announced in late 2011 that they would have a new driver joining the team alongside Timo Glock; they welcomed young Frenchman Charles Pic making it an exciting mix, with an experienced driver and a rookie for the new up-coming season. Both announcements were exciting for Marussia fans everywhere, me being one of them....




Leading into the winter testing, it became clear that Marussia were not prepared to test the new car, so decided for the sake of Charles and Timo that they brought the old 2011 spec for some sort of testing ahead of the season opener in Australia. Despite all the hard work, there was still a lack of testing as they only made an appearance at one test out of the three scheduled after the new MR01 failed the crash test.

Many questions were asked regarding whether or not this could not only effect the start to Timo’s season, who has been driving for the team since the Virgin Racing days, but more on whether this would be a massive affect too the start of Charles’ debut Formula 1 season. It was only a few weeks before Australia that the team revealed the new car and completed a shakedown at the Silverstone Circuit.
 

Despite the questions and the raised eyebrows, I believe Marussia had worked extremely hard to provide both their drivers with the information and feel they needed going into the first race. Maybe with the lack of testing it could have affected them, but with an honest opinion and a deep look into what they had done in the testing that was completed it was a brilliant effort from all the team.

Looking at what Marussia have done in the first few races’ of the season, you can’t say they were the best but nor can you say that they were the worst for the team.

Australia was the first real time that the MR01 was properly tested by the drivers, during the three practice sessions ahead of qualifying and the race.

It was a fair shot by both drivers, putting 110% into their work, doing everything they could to provide not just the team but themselves with data and information that they needed and were unable to collect during the winter months.

The team had the mind set on achieving the best that they could from the car, the team and their drivers. There were struggles but it was clear that improvement was coming for the Branbury based team, which had struggled badly in previous years.

I watched the team when they joined the sport back in 2010, I was impressed with what they had been trying to get from their first season racing in F1 and I couldn’t wait to watch them grow, see what they could achieve and how they would do it. With an honest opinion, I believe 2012 was the team’s best season start, despite all the problems and disappointment they had before the season had even begun they still managed to pull off a fantastic 14^th and 15^th for Timo and Charles at the first race.

After a couple more great finishes at Malaysia and China, the Marussia team witnessed their first big disappointing finish at Bahrain when on lap 24 Charles suffered from an air valve issue that sadly brought his race too an early end. Although Charles failed to finish, Timo Glock found himself in the classification for another race, proving that the overall reliability for both drivers wasn’t bad and that the car was capable of finishing a race unlike previous seasons where there would be races’ where the team failed to finish.

I was hoping that in Spain, both drivers would finish the race but sadly for the second race in a row, Charles failed to finish the Spanish Grand prix but Glock did an amazing job to finish the Grand Prix.


It’s hard to predict what the team might be able to achieve over the next few races’ I think I for one can say, there will be a noticeable improvement. Though it’s going to be a tough journey, they will be focusing on beating rival teams, Caterham and HRT before the team look into the long term, but with the help of a partnership with McLaren, will this team improve faster than what a lot think? I think they will be capable of achieving if they keep doing what they have been so far this season.