The Marussia Thread

[AndreaModa]

You would consider not having it to be a setback, particularly seeing as every other team on the grid will have it, but ultimately I think Booth's explanation is spot on. Marussia aren't looking for a few tenths per lap, they need at least two, possibly even three or four seconds a lap to allow them to challenge the back of the midfield consistently like I expect Caterham to do this year. Hopefully the saving they make from not having KERS and not having the technical headaches the device will bring in the first few races will allow them to channel their resources and time into other more fundamental areas of the car which must be improved on from last year (particularly the aerodynamics).

[mario]

You would consider not having it to be a setback, particularly seeing as every other team on the grid will have it, but ultimately I think Booth's explanation is spot on. Marussia aren't looking for a few tenths per lap, they need at least two, possibly even three or four seconds a lap to allow them to challenge the back of the midfield consistently like I expect Caterham to do this year. Hopefully the saving they make from not having KERS and not having the technical headaches the device will bring in the first few races will allow them to channel their resources and time into other more fundamental areas of the car which must be improved on from last year (particularly the aerodynamics).

Gascoyne made exactly the same point last year when asked if they would fit KERS to their car - the cost of a KERS unit was simply far too high for the theoretical performance benefit it offered. In 2011 the potential gain from having KERS was probably in the order of 0.3s a lap on average, whereas the potential gains from refining the aerodynamics of the car could be in the order of seconds; that is before you look at refining the mechanical components of the car, which in itself could yield a fairly sizeable gain in lap time.
Even something as simple as optimising the set up of their cars so you really are extracting the full potential of the cars could be more beneficial. McLaren, for example, found that out the hard way in 2009 - they subsequently admitted that in their early attempts to develop the car, they didn't spend enough time evaluating the performance impact of new and existing parts, which meant that it took much longer than it should have to start turning the performance of the car around than it should have.

Caterham can - hell, they have to - start adopting KERS and take a slightly more aggressive design direction because they are reaching the point where the potential gains in performance are no longer quite as big. Besides, there will be some advantages for Marussia in not using KERS - packaging should be easier due to the lower cooling demands, not to mention the fact that it should put less stress on their engines next year (scarbsf1 has posted an interesting article on the Mercedes KERS program, which found that KERS did have an impact on their engine mileage allocation as the engine would typically be hitting a higher number of revs down the straights than it would have been if KERS was absent).

[David AGS]

Slightly off topic, but they have just failed their chassis tests, failing on 1 aspect.

Thats means they will not test their car this week in Spain, already putting them on the back foot.

[DanielPT]

Slightly off topic, but they have just failed their chassis tests, failing on 1 aspect.

Thats means they will not test their car this week in Spain, already putting them on the back foot.

That is not off topic. Although it is being discussed elsewhere (Pre season testing post, if I am not mistaken), it should also belong here together with all previous Marussia shenanigans, which, while not being as many as those of HRT, have been just as bad (Remember Nick Wirth and his CFD only approach?).

[AndreaModa]

Ideally we could use a thread dedicated to the team, much like the HRT thread. The name of this one makes it slightly ambiguous, and McDuck isn't around anymore to be able to edit it.

Maybe a mod could edit the title to the 'Virgin Racing/MVR/Marussia Thread' ?

[Ferrim]

F1 Rejects - the place where Marussia and HRT are the only teams with their own thread!

[AndreaModa]

Good work mods!

Might as well round up a bit of news for those interested.

Marussia have signed on three new partners for 2012, which I guess is pretty good news considering Virgin are taking increasingly large steps away from the team - the exposure on the cars in Barcelona said everything about where they stand now. I fear that without the Virgin money, and with only Marussia behind them, if they don't set themselves strict budget limits they could find themselves very short of cash before too long.

The three new partners, all of which are only small deals are: Sage, a software company, Monster.com, a recruitment advertiser and finally CarPlan, the UK's largest supplier of car care products!

I guess any news is good news these days!

[East Londoner]

Good work mods!

Might as well round up a bit of news for those interested.

Marussia have signed on three new partners for 2012, which I guess is pretty good news considering Virgin are taking increasingly large steps away from the team - the exposure on the cars in Barcelona said everything about where they stand now. I fear that without the Virgin money, and with only Marussia behind them, if they don't set themselves strict budget limits they could find themselves very short of cash before too long.

The three new partners, all of which are only small deals are: Sage, a software company, Monster.com, a recruitment advertiser and finally CarPlan, the UK's largest supplier of car care products!

I guess any news is good news these days!

So if the forum comes under attack from a new wave of spambots, I know what post and team I'm blaming!

[dinizintheoven]

Any news may be good news, but I can't think they should also be going after a few more rich Arabs with money to burn. The Russians may have pots of money, but aren't they keeing it to themselves or doing something dodgy with it? I'm sure I remember stories on this forum that Minardi were given a few headaches in the good old days of HWNSNBM when Gazprom splattered their logo all over the cars and failed to pay up. Cash from the Middle East does tend to flow a bit more easily. Hey, even the organisers of the World Cup in Qatar, terrible idea though that is, could jump on and use the MR01 as a massive advertising board, and it'll be slow, so there'll be more time to look at the message.

In short, what I'm saying is...

WARNING: AWFUL JOKE ALERT
















Marussia need to do the Sheikh & Vac, and put the budget back.

I'll get me coat.

[Ferrim]

An awful joke about you paying Russian sponsors, instead of the other way around, is due as well.

[ElizabethSterling]

Obscenely large photo link: http://www.f1talks.pl/wp-content/upload ... 7063_4.jpg

The MR01 revealed finally. No word on the crash test yet.

[Pedestrian]

Virgin were allways the best of the new teams from the point of view of aesthetics, and the new car does not dissappoint. I think it's even more beautifull then the McLaren, and I'm a McLaren fan.
I know that I can't wish for them to be competitive, because it would be futile, but I just wish they will not be too uncompetitive.

[ElizabethSterling]

I can only see them falling further away from Caterham, anything up to another second if testing is anything to go by. I hope I'm wrong of course but I think the odds are in favor of the car being miles off of its nearest competitor. They might not even have the luxury of having the HRTs behind them this year.

[FullMetalJack]

They might not even have the luxury of having the HRTs behind them this year.

They didn't always have that luxury last year.

[S951]

at least they have a good looking car front wing looks a bit high side on view but probably not been setup "to spec" yet. Exhausts look like the are sauber/red bull down wash onto the diffuser, see pullrods at the rear to, overall looks like a much tidier car compared to last year.

Shame they along with HRT didn't make the test as it would of been good to see where they stood (gained or lost)

[mario]

at least they have a good looking car front wing looks a bit high side on view but probably not been setup "to spec" yet. Exhausts look like the are sauber/red bull down wash onto the diffuser, see pullrods at the rear to, overall looks like a much tidier car compared to last year.

Shame they along with HRT didn't make the test as it would of been good to see where they stood (gained or lost)

I'm not so sure that the front wing is actually that high above the ground now, or at least not significantly higher than most other teams, when you take a look at the car from the front.


By way of comparison, here is a shot of Alonso on track during the recent test session:

It might just be a trick of the eye due to the fact that, since Marussia have gone for a relatively low nose, your eye is fooled into thinking that the gap between the nose and the top of the wing is smaller than it appears - although given the angles the photos have been taken from it's kind of hard to say so definitively.

Incidentally, scarbsf1 has taken a little look at the car and has confirmed that the MR-01 does have pullrod rear suspension, which means that they have joined in with the rest of the field on that feature. Mind you, having cast his eye over the car, he does seem a little disappointed that the car doesn't really look like a major advance on the previous years car - certainly not as marked an improvement as Caterham have made - so I would agree with those suggesting that they've probably fallen even further behind Caterham, and perhaps even HRT.

The MR01 revealed finally. No word on the crash test yet.

The worrying news from the BBC's Andrew Benson's Twitter feed is that Marussia still haven't officially passed the tests:

Marussia not yet passed final crash test. Pat Symonds: "has passed an ‘unobserved’ test but performing inconsistently in observed tests..."

Symonds: "fail marginal but to completely eradicate that margin are taking time we have to ensure we have an even more robust solution”

http://twitter.com/#!/andrewbensonf1
I do hope that Marussia can get into gear pretty damned quick - because if they cannot obtain official approval (and we are getting dangerously close to the first race now), we could well see Marussia being barred from participating in Australia.

[S951]

yeah after thinking about it mario it is the low nose still regardless of how it goes I like this one don't know about the sidepods though look bit fat

[AdrianSutil]

I don't know why, but I look at the MR-01 and all I see is 'GP2 car'.

But the front of the nose is clearly lower than the Ferrari from the pics above. It does look nice though.

And who wouldve thought: Only three teams have gone against the 'stepped' nose and two of them are backmarkers!

[Ferrim]

McLaren must get ready for a tough season, then.

[AndreaModa]

Obscenely large photo link: http://www.f1talks.pl/wp-content/upload ... 7063_4.jpg

The MR01 revealed finally. No word on the crash test yet.

Yes! Been looking for a large image for a while - I've found my new desktop wallpaper!

I also notice the nose is very long, and protrudes a long way over the front wing, slightly different to everything else we've seen.

Not sure about all the doomsday predictions about them being behind HRT though. They won't challenge Caterham, but will hopefully show an improvement on last year. I'm still praying that they'll sneak a point one day!

[AdrianSutil]

McLaren must get ready for a tough season, then.

Yep! Hamilton-Karthikeyen-Glock podium whilst the Platypus cars dived into the Albert Park lake






We can dream...

[mario]

OK, good news for Marussia - they have just announced that the car has passed the final crash tests, so they should now have the all clear to race in Australia. https://twitter.com/#!/andrewbensonf1/s ... 2471259139
So, at least the team have been able to clear one more hurdle then - I guess that we now just have to wait and see how they get on in FP1 to see what they can produce (and, just as importantly, whether or not they can manage a time within 107% of the front runners).

[AndreaModa]

The story is also on Autosport, along with the regurgitated quotes from Symonds over the past few days.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97877

Considering it was pretty nip and tuck, it's good to see they've finally got it out of the way.

Does anyone know if they ran again at Silverstone today? It was suggested that they were doing so in articles published yesterday.

[dr-baker]

Marussia have a female test driver !!! Maria de Villota has (kinda) made it into F1 !!!

[Klon]

To quote a certain signature: YES! YES! YES!

Now we only need to get Timo Glock ... somewhere else.

[DanielPT]

Marussia have a female test driver !!! Maria de Villota has (kinda) made it into F1 !!!

Marussia are really trying hard to beat HRT... In rejectness levels that is!

[East Londoner]

Sweet! Now we just need HRT to be tempted by the sponsors of Milka Duno, and it'll be bloody brilliant!

[S951]

go lady drive go!!

[mario]

Marussia have a female test driver !!! Maria de Villota has (kinda) made it into F1 !!!

Not quite the team that was being suggested, but I wouldn't have expected somebody to actually take the idea seriously...

[Minardi Man]

Marussia have a female test driver !!! Maria de Villota has (kinda) made it into F1 !!!

Not quite the team that was being suggested, but I wouldn't have expected somebody to actually take the idea seriously...

Perphaps Marussia are trying to attract some media attention, or maybe sponsors???

[RealRacingRoots]

To quote a certain signature: YES! YES! YES!

Wait, do you know where i got the idea for this sig from? Or are you quoting it for the lols?

[FullMetalJack]

To quote a certain signature: YES! YES! YES!

Wait, do you know where i got the idea for this sig from? Or are you quoting it for the lols?

Clearly this!

[RealRacingRoots]

To quote a certain signature: YES! YES! YES!

Wait, do you know where i got the idea for this sig from? Or are you quoting it for the lols?

Clearly this!

Never though of that, but wishful thinking.

[Klon]

To quote a certain signature: YES! YES! YES!

Wait, do you know where i got the idea for this sig from? Or are you quoting it for the lols?

The fact that I considered telling you that you don't deserve to have that signature because you eat meat and aren't a vegan, therefore not being a role model like he is should answer that question.

Not to mention the fact that F1RWRS's Kay Lon is pretty much a poor man's Chris Jericho.

[Wizzie]

Not to mention the fact that F1RWRS's Kay Lon is pretty much a poor man's Chris Jericho.

Ah yes, the largest ham of them all

[RealRacingRoots]

The fact that I considered telling you that you don't deserve to have that signature because you eat meat and aren't a vegan, therefore not being a role model like he is should answer that question.

Not to mention the fact that F1RWRS's Kay Lon is pretty much a poor man's Chris Jericho.

Oh the irony, I'm eating a burger right now. But I watched Colt Cabana's podcast that had Bryan Danielson on it and he had to become a vegan for health reasons, not because he felt like doing the world some good.

And now back to the topic. So Maria will do the Young Driver test later in the year, and what else? If she does any tests or a Friday practice I will be surprised.

[FullMetalJack]

Never though of that, but wishful thinking.

I'll post that when my virtual driver becomes champion. I have no idea what it's all about though.

[KL-racer]

Marussia have a female test driver !!! Maria de Villota has (kinda) made it into F1 !!!

Okay, this has to be a rejectful PR boost for Maurssia! Next step, get her some friday practice sessions!

[Pieman]

A very Brabham-esque move there - expect the team to fold by the end of the season. And possibly repaint their cars pink.

[AndreaModa]

And give the son of a former champion a few starts?

Nicolas Prost perhaps?