Marussia needs a KERS system to catch up with its direct rivals.

That is the admission of team boss John Booth, who told the Russian website championat.com that he is looking into adding the energy recovery technology to next year’s Marussia package.

“First of all, I want to say that while it is said it (KERS) is a ‘green’ technology, in reality it’s just a serious waste of money,” he said.

“But in our situation it’s time to start thinking seriously about KERS. Of the gap to Caterham, five or six tenths is due to KERS,” added Booth.

“So we are thinking seriously about it for 2013, but so far there is no decision.”

Both admitted the start of the 2012 season has been a disappointment so far for Marussia, which in its first two years was called Virgin.

He said the team has recently completed a phase of serious restructuring.

“We had a good team of people before, but now we have a good team of designers. Though we have been in F1 for three years, I have the feeling that we were actually born in July 2011.”

Both is undoubtedly referring to the split mid last year with former technical chief Nick Wirth, and the relocation to a new headquarters.

Maria de Villota has admitted she is not Marussia’s reserve driver for 2012.
The 32-year-old Spaniard made international headlines last week by signing with the former Virgin team.

But she has admitted that, should Timo Glock or Charles Pic be unable to race this season, she will not automatically step into the MR01.

“I am available but I am a test driver, not the reserve driver,” she told the AS sports daily.

“Everything is to be decided by the team,” added de Villota, who revealed she will travel to all the grands prix this year.

“If there is an incident with them (the race drivers) … you will have to ask John Booth, the team boss,” she answered.

De Villota is also not contracted to practice on Friday mornings, but would not reveal any further details of her new contract.

“I am blessed by sponsors who have got me into F1 under conditions no one would have imagined were possible. I’m proud of that,” she said.

Spaniard Maria De Villota has become a Marussia F1 Team test driver.

Maria has raced in a variety of single-seater and sports car categories, including Spanish F3, the Daytona 24 Hours, the Euroseries 3000 and Superleague Formula Championship.

Maria has also experienced a Formula One cockpit previously, having received a test drive courtesy of the team formerly known as Lotus Renault F1 Team at Paul Ricard in August of last year, where she achieved 300kms of running.

As the daughter of former F1 driver and British Formula One Series Champion Emilio de Villota, Maria has always dreamed of following in his footsteps to reach the highest level of motorsport. Her integration into the Marussia F1 Team means she will have the opportunity to work with racing drivers operating at the pinnacle of the sport and, later in the year, the chance to drive the MR01.

John Booth, Team Principal, Marussia F1 Team, commented:

“We are pleased to welcome Maria to our test driver programme, which will enable her to be integrated into a Formula One team environment and gain a vast amount of experience that will be useful to her career progression. We will also provide Maria with the opportunity to sample F1 machinery later in the year, further adding to her racing credentials.”

Maria De Villota had this to say:

“I am very happy to be joining the Marussia F1 Team test driver programme. This is a fantastic opportunity to work closely with a Formula One team and gain important experience to help me progress my career, including the chance to drive the new car later in the year at the Abu Dhabi test. I will be joining the team trackside so I’m looking forward to working alongside them at the first race next weekend and this can only help my future ambition to step up to Formula One racing.”

Marussia’s 2012 car made its track debut on Monday, despite having failed to pass all the mandatory FIA crash tests.
But because the action at Silverstone is the team’s ‘filming and promotional’ pre-season running, rather than an official test, it was allowed by the governing body and rival teams.

Designed by former Renault man Pat Symonds, the MR01 – fitted on Monday with demonstration Pirelli tyres – does not feature a ‘step nose’, uniquely in common with technical partner McLaren’s 2012 solution.

“It has been a long and frustrating wait for everyone in the team but we can now get back on track and start working towards the first race of the season in Australia next weekend,” said team boss John Booth.

The car must now pass the missing FIA crash test before Melbourne, and Symonds sounds hopeful.

“The component in question has actually passed an ‘unobserved’ crash test but has been performing inconsistently in the observed tests,” he is quoted by Reuters.

Also for a filming day, HRT’s 2012 car is making its debut on Monday, at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Marussia Racing’s new MR01 finally made its first on-track appearance during a promotional ‘filming’ day at Silverstone, just a few miles from is Banbury base.

The Anglo-Russian team endured a torrid time in its attempts to get the car ready for the third and final group test at Barcelona last week, having skipped the opening session in Jerez to prepare the MR01 for early March, only to fail the mandatory FIA crash tests. Although both Timo Glock and rookie Charles Pic got some miles under their belts in Barcelona last month, it was at the wheel of the 2011-spec car, leaving them preciously short of time in the new machine ahead of its race debut in Melbourne next weekend.

The Silverstone shakedown, part of a promotional event ahead of the car’s departure for the Australian Grand Prix, will provide both team and driver with vital information on the new machine, which has been conceived after a ground-up re-evaluation of the way Marussia designs its racing cars. As such, the car is almost entirely new, with very few carry-over components from last year’s Marussia Virgin MVR-02.

The desire to make a clean break from the previous CFD-only creations presented the design team, led by technical consultant Pat Symonds, with the challenge of going back to basics to produce a solid mechanical package, whilst maintaining an eye towards achieving the incremental performance steps required to move the team forward.

The starting point for the design programme was a consideration of the people and resources available to the Banbury-based team. The former three-base operation has been consolidated into one site, the Marussia Technical Centre in Banbury, bringing the various elements of the business together to form ‘one team’. In particular, the design department and practices now benefit from far greater integration and collaboration. Furthermore, the aerodynamic department has been completely restructured and the aero methodology reinforced, blurring the boundaries between CFD and experimental work in the wind tunnel, as well as enhancing the fidelity of the team’s aero approach.

The technical partnership forged with McLaren Applied Technologies in July of last year has also been influential in the design process and the relationship is starting to yield benefit as the advanced facilities that the Marussia team has access to have been used to prove the correlation process with the MVR-02. It is however early in the relationship and the MR01 will become a beneficiary of the relationship in due course.

The key design priorities were to address previous aerodynamic deficiencies and, mechanically, achieve greater weight saving. At the same time, a lot of the detail of the car has been refined and the design team have been a little more adventurous than before, stepping closer to the engineering boundaries. The car can best be described as a significant evolution of its predecessors. The relationship with McLaren is also evident, as the MR01 is only the second car launched this season, after the Woking giant’s MP4-27, to eschew the stepped nose concept favoured by the rest of the field.

“We are very pleased to be running the new MR01 for the first time this morning,” team principal John Booth admitted, “It has been a long and frustrating wait for everyone in the team, but we can now get back on track – literally – and start working towards the first race of the season in Australia next weekend.

“Today is the first of two promotional events, so while the drivers will be able to get a feel for the car, they won’t be able to draw any real conclusions until we start running in anger in Melbourne. Nevertheless, this is an important day for us and we’ll enjoy every minute on track with the new car.”

Glock turned the first laps with the MR01, beginning his third season with the team and providing the all-important element of continuity required to keep moving the package forward. He is joined in 2012 by Frenchman Pic, who embarks on his rookie year in F1, having made the step up from GP2 to replace Belgium’s Jerome d’Ambrosio. Both drivers will get track time with the new car over the next two days, albeit running on demonstration tyres as opposed to the Pirelli P-Zeros that they will use once competition starts in Melbourne.

At the front of the field in 2012, before a single racing lap has even turned, the well-known formula one arms-race has already begun.
As the last days of pre-Melbourne testing are counted down in Barcelona, Red Bull and McLaren unveiled major evolutions to their recently-launched new cars.

On the RB8, the major difference was the Sauber-style exhaust, after designer Adrian Newey was reportedly “impressed” with the 2012 solution devised by the Swiss midfield team.

“It’s effectively a completely new (Red Bull) car,” said the BBC’s technical analyst Gary Anderson, according to the Guardian.

The high-profile Red Bull upgrade was the perfect time for McLaren to quietly unveil its own heavily modified car, Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reported.

“Did you see that McLaren have rebuilt half their car?” Force India technical director Andrew Green is quoted as saying.

One new innovation on the MP4-27, apparently, is a Mercedes-like front wing W-duct.

“The upgrade is a major step forward; better than we expected,” said Jenson Button.

Elsewhere, the noises are not so positive: Ferrari stridently denied internet rumours Felipe Massa has been sacked, and then gagged both the Brazilian and his teammate Fernando Alonso from speaking to the media.

“The decision has been taken to keep the whole team fully focused on the job and there is not any polemic intent behind it,” the team insisted.

But while happily listing Red Bull’s likely contenders for 2012, Mark Webber admitted Ferrari’s form remains a “mystery”.

Even less is known about those at the rear of the grid, with Marussia and HRT still yet to launch their 2012 cars.

The Spanish team has sought permission at late notice to do a “filming day” with its new machine in Barcelona on Monday, while Marussia wants to run at Silverstone in the coming days.

At Marussia, the hold-up was caused by the FIA’s more stringent than ever crash tests.

“We’re going to make sure we get it right this time,” team boss John Booth told the BBC.

Marussia intends to keep Charles Pic, the team’s new French rookie, for more than a single season.
When known as Virgin, the team ousted Timo Glock’s 2010 and 2011 teammates – Lucas di Grassi and Jerome d’Ambrosio respectively – after a single season each.

The latest in the pay-driver hotseat is GP2 driver Pic, 21.

“I think there is some long term potential for him,” said team chief executive Andy Webb.

“I’m looking really to see if he can go forward for more than one year,” he told the Daily Mail.

With its 2012 car not yet ready, Marussia is the only team sitting out this week’s Jerez test.

Although also without new single seaters launched yet, Mercedes and HRT are running this week with their 2011 cars.

“I think it is a setback,” admitted team boss John Booth.

“We’ve taken on a huge challenge following the exit of Nick Wirth and to build a new car from scratch is demanding, but we are certainly up for that challenge.

“We have decided that it is the best thing for us to reach Barcelona initially with the 2011 car, and then for the second Barcelona test with the 2012 car. That’s the plan.”

A race seat with Virgin could be the next step for Canadian Robert Wickens.

Driving in Virgin and title sponsor Marussia’s colours this season, the 22-year-old wrapped up the Renault World Series championship in Spain last weekend while F1 raced at Suzuka.

“We look forward to celebrating with him this weekend in Korea,” announced Virgin’s F1 team boss John Booth.

A few months ago, Wickens was announced as the F1 team’s new reserve driver.

And while the formula one world was in Japan last weekend, the Belgian newspaper De Morgen reported that Wickens is in the running for a 2012 seat because he has “more (sponsorship) money” to offer than Jerome d’Ambrosio.

Wickens told the Toronto newspaper Globe and Mail: “F1 has always been the goal in my whole career and now I am the closest I have ever been.

“Definitely, I will switch now to trying to secure a seat for next year.

“At the end of the day, if I could get corporate Canada’s support it would be a dream come true.”

Despite playing down the rumours mere days ago, Virgin boss John Booth on Friday confirmed Robert Wickens as the team’s new reserve driver.
It had been reported Canadian Wickens, 22, backed substantially by Virgin team sponsor and investor Marussia, was set to join the British based team.

But Booth said two weeks ago: “Robert is concentrating on his Renault series.”

However, Virgin Racing announced on Friday that he has signed on as a 2011 reserve driver alongside Japanese Sakon Yamamoto.

“Toronto-born Robert will attend each of the remaining grands prix where there is no clash with the Formula Renault 3.5 series, with effect from next weekend’s Canadian grand prix”, said the team.

“We are delighted to welcome him to Virgin Racing’s roster of reserve drivers,” said Booth.

It has been reported Wickens is first in line should race driver Jerome d’Ambrosio’s sponsors continue to delay their payments.

It was Williams who pushed the FIA to clamp down on ever-sophisticated blown exhaust solutions.
That is the claim of Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, amid earlier suspicions that Virgin had complained loudest as they fall behind in the crucial new area of F1 car development.

In June, the off-throttle blowing of exhaust gases will be limited by 90 per cent, and Autosprint in Italy claims exhaust-blown diffusers could be banned altogether for the start of 2012.

There is no doubt the FIA crackdown was motivated by a team, and the early suspect was Virgin. “But it was Williams,” a report by Auto Motor und Sport said.

“A ban … would have affected us less than the leading teams because we … are quite a long way behind on the engine mapping side,” Virgin team boss John Booth admitted to Reuters.

It emerges that Cosworth, engine supplier to both Williams and Virgin, is struggling to keep up with its rivals in the area of off-throttle engine mapping.

Red Bull’s Adrian Newey said the ban will affect all the top teams more or less equally.

“Everyone has this technology and the exhaust solutions are very similar,” he said. “I cannot tell you whether the ban will be a relative advantage or a disadvantage (for Red Bull),” he added.

“It doesn’t affect only the engine suppliers, we have to react on the chassis side too. If the exhaust gases can’t flow consistently any more, it will have a significant influence on the balance,” said Newey.

Also disappointed is Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn.

“The teams and engine manufacturers have invested a lot of money in this technology that is now thrown out of the window,” he said.

F1 teams will test an evolution of Pirelli’s ‘hard’ tyre compound in Turkey on Friday.
The sport’s official supplier, worried in particular about Istanbul Park’s awesome Turn 8, tested an ultra-hard tyre at the circuit recently but ultimately decided to take its regular hard tyre to the race this weekend.

Tyre degradation has been high in 2011, and Turn 8 will be easily the toughest challenge faced by Pirelli so far.

“We will be interested to see if it (Turn throws up an anomaly,” admitted Virgin team boss John Booth.

Another tough challenge awaits two weeks later, where Circuit de Catalunya features an abrasive surface and the long sweeping right-hander near the start of the lap.

“If (in Turkey) we see the results that we expect from this life-sized test of the new tyre, our aim will be to use it in Barcelona,” confirmed Pirelli’s research and development director Maurizio Boiocchi.

“This tyre will provide less degradation and so we expect it to last longer, but the warm-up time will also be a little longer and there will be less grip,” he added.

Jerome d’Ambrosio will not enjoy Virgin’s full car upgrade in Turkey this weekend.

After a very disappointing start to the team’s second championship campaign, team boss John Booth said the improvements for Istanbul are “significant”.

“It represents a new direction for us and we’re hopeful that it will help us start to turn the corner,” he said.

Virgin has been working on the Turkey upgrade since before the 2011 season even began, but only the car raced by Timo Glock will feature all of the new parts.

“Jerome will not have the benefit of the full upgrade package until Spain but he will get a taste of some of the elements this weekend,” said Booth.

John Booth sounds downbeat despite Virgin expecting to take a major step forward in Turkey early next month.
After the team’s new car only narrowly staved off the struggling HRTs recently, media reports said an upgrade package for Istanbul includes a higher nose, new floor, Red Bull-like exhaust, modified rear suspension and new wings.

Germany’s Speed Week is calling the upgraded version a ‘B’ model of the MVR-02, but team boss Booth is quoted as worrying about the development of the team in its second season.

“We have stagnated,” the German-language report quotes the Briton as saying.

“The new developments for the Turkish grand prix will eliminate many of our problems, but we will only then be where we wanted to be in Australia,” added Booth.

Bernie Ecclestone has continued to argue that ten teams is a better number for formula one.

The F1 chief executive was a staunch critic of the sport’s three new stragglers last year, but he has since said Team Lotus is a worthy competitor.

“I’m very happy that they are back,” Ecclestone told the BBC. “They will get on their feet and then sponsors will be attracted to them and we’ll see them grow.

“Frank Williams was like that years ago,” added the 80-year-old.

As for Virgin and HRT, however, he told Reuters late last season that “one or two of them (the new teams) shouldn’t be there perhaps … it’s a bit rich for their blood”.

When asked how the 2011 season will be for them, he answered simply: “Difficult.

“Twelve teams is too many. Ten is enough,” added Ecclestone.

A report in Spain’s El Mundo Deportivo said the Briton actually wants to drop the limit for the maximum number of teams from 13 to 10 for the new 2013 Concorde agreement.

The report said Ecclestone thinks ten is a better number to financially look after the teams and ensure there are enough good sponsors to go around.

Technical boss Mike Gascoyne said he is determined to move Team Lotus forward this year.

“Formula one is about competition, it’s the peak of motor sport, you shouldn’t be there as a spare part,” he said.

Virgin has also vowed to raise its game but had the slowest 2011 car in recent testing, while HRT will only run its new car for the first time in Melbourne next Friday.

Referring to 2010, Virgin boss John Booth said: “We thought F1 was achievable the way we were doing it, and we thought it was a wonderful thing. But you soon get the wake-up call, don’t you?”

Shocking new details of Robert Kubica’s rally crash have emerged.

Video footage of the car that was following the Pole’s Skoda Fabia in the minor event in Italy, and newly emerged photographs, show that a length of armco barrier skewered the car from front to rear.

Currently sedated due to the pain, he will stay in intensive care for a few more days, before his other injuries are operated on. Reports have said Kubica lost 5 pints of blood after the crash and was initially in a “critical” condition.

Kubica’s co-driver has criticised the roads and the front-impact safety standards of the car, but others argued that the highly paid 26-year-old should not have been competing at all.

“You’ve got to look after that investment,” triple world champion and former team owner and boss Sir Jackie Stewart told the Telegraph.

“It’s quite a challenge to stop drivers doing the things I believe are unwise leading up to a F1 season,” he added.

Renault chief Eric Boullier, however, said the freedom to rally is so important to Kubica, who for years was not allowed to according to the terms of his BMW contract.

Former BMW-Sauber team boss Mario Theissen told the Associated Press: “What’s the point in pushing hard for the highest safety standards in F1 if a driver is then seriously hurt in other racing activities?”

The German said he always had “sympathy” for Kubica’s passions, but “The driver is key to success in F1.

“Only he can turn the tremendous effort of several hundred equally determined people into results.”

To L’Equipe in France, however, Boullier defended Kubica’s freedom to rally on the basis that “He could also have been run over by a bus going to get his bread”.

But Martin Brundle said it was “crazy” for Kubica to be rallying in between key F1 tests, and Canadian driver Patrick Carpentier agrees.

“If I was to blame someone, it would be his team, who should never have released him (to rally),” he told the French language Rue Frontenac.

“Especially (not) so close to the start of the new season, and between two test sessions. What bad timing,” added Carpentier.

Commented Jacques Laffite, a commentator for French television and ex-F1 winner: “My position has always been that these guys who take risks every Sunday should be free to do what they like.

“Today, we are seeing things differently, obviously,” he told L’Equipe.

“An F1 driver is part of a team of about 700 people, so it is right to have some restrictions,” added Laffite.

Flavio Briatore said after visiting Kubica: “You can’t blame anyone, the accident was just that.”

And it seems that even Ferrari doesn’t stop its drivers from participating in dangerous activities, as when Fernando Alonso heard about Kubica’s crash, he was skiing in Val Gardena.

Virgin boss John Booth said trying to control F1 drivers is futile.

“We took Jerome (d’Ambrosio) and Timo (Glock) skiing a couple of weeks ago,” he said at the launch of the MVR-02.

“We said Ok guys, stick to the piste, blah blah blah, so we got to the top of the lift, the gates opened and they were just flat out. They were everywhere.

“And that’s how they are. That’s what makes them so good. You can’t wrap them in cotton wool,” he added.