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Marussia able to learn a lot from tyre test - Chilton

Max Chilton: "The data is always good on a race run" © Sutton Images

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• Drivers:
• Max Chilton

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Max Chilton said Marussia managed to learn from his run at the Young Driver Test on Wednesday, despite being struck down by an ECU problem and having to stick to a Pirelli run plan.

Marussia took the opportunity to run Chilton in the afternoon of the first day despite restrictions imposed by the FIA on what race drivers can do at the test. The idea is that race drivers put the new Pirelli tyres through their paces ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix by running tests based on the tyres rather than car development.

Chilton took over the car in the afternoon from Tio Ellinas, but lost track time due to an ECU problem. When he did get running he said Marussia was very restricted in what it could do but still managed to learn from a race run towards the end of the session.

"There are set tyre pressures, we weren't allowed to adjust the car at all, and the only thing we could change was brake balance and a flap of front wing," he said. "That's why the race drivers were doing lots of laps and not really setting times. But the data is always good in a race run and we did actually learn quite a lot in that one 20-lap stint we did at the end."

He said the new tyres, which feature a 2012 structure and 2013 compounds, were noticeably different from the previous tyres used this year after he tested the hard and prototype super-hard compounds.

"They are harder to get the tyre temperature up and they don't have as much grip, but they last very well and they are very consistent. But we can work on tyre temp with different types of set-up, so it isn't always a massive issue. The times were miles off because they were all hards and the prototype hards are a bit slower as well."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.