Marussia Barcelona testing - Day 1 report
Marussia press release
Marussia F1 Team’s new driver Charles Pic made his on-track debut as a Formula One driver today at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, where the team began its pre-season testing programme.
Charles was at the wheel of the 2011 car - the MVR-02 - gathering valuable acclimatisation mileage ready for his Grand Prix debut next month.
The main focus of the day was reacclimatising the race team to pit stops after the winter break and providing an opportunity for Charles to practice these in representative conditions.
He made the most of the car’s excellent reliability to clock up no fewer than 121 laps - the highest of the day - working with the Pirelli P-Zero hard, medium and soft tyres over long runs to understand the behaviour of the 2012 rubber.
Charles Pic
“It has been a very good first day for me and a positive way to begin the new season. The car has worked very well all day so we were able to push through with the programme. We made a lot of pit stops this morning and practiced all the procedures, which was very helpful for me, and this afternoon we completed a race simulation. I learned a lot from the day and I’m looking forward to running again tomorrow.”
It’s great to be back in action after almost three months away from the race track
John Booth, Team Principal
“It’s great to be back in action after almost three months away from the race track. Although it is disappointing that we are not here with our 2012 car, the opportunity to use the MVR-02 with its impressive reliability to complete a whole series of pit stop scenarios with the race team and Charles is invaluable. For the past two months the team have been practising every day in the factory and this hard work came to fruition today.
There seems to be a genuine improvement in the standard of the stops and Charles’ practice today will stand him in good stead for the opening race in Melbourne. We finished the afternoon off with a full race simulation for Charles stepping through the three options of tyres suited to this circuit and also completing live pit stops. Overall a positive way to start our 2012 season testing and we look forward to a continuation of Charles’ development over the next few days and to seeing Timo in the car briefly on Thursday.”
Best Lap Time: 1.28.026
Number of Laps: 121
Total Kms: 558
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