Marussia will sit out the forthcoming first test of the 2012 pre-season. It has also emerged that the former Virgin team’s new single seater will not make an appearance until the third and final test of the winter in Barcelona.
Kevin Eason, the London newspaper The Times’ veteran F1 correspondent, said the news is “worrying”.
After finishing its first two seasons dead last, however, the team has gone back to the drawing board with what boss John Booth describes as an “almost entirely new (car), with very little carry over”.
“Unfortunately our programme has slipped and there seems little point in fielding the new car before we can optimise the run plan for it. So the plan is to run the 2011 (car) in Barcelona from 21 February and the new (2012 car) MR01 from 1 March at the second Barcelona test,” the team explained on Twitter.
“We will hopefully gain more constructive track time than we might otherwise have achieved had we rushed the new car out for the second test,” added Booth.
Previously, Marussia planned to be at the forthcoming Jerez test with the 2011 car to give rookie Charles Pic some mileage.
Source:GMM
