• British Grand Prix

Marussia set for 'first proper upgrade'

ESPN Staff
June 29, 2012 « Perez targets British podium | Vettel hopes to maintain advantage at Silverstone »
The MR01has been largely untouched throughout the season so far © Sutton Images
Enlarge
Related Links

Marussia team principal John Booth has revealed that the team will have its "first proper wind-tunnel generated upgrade of the season" at the British Grand Prix.

Having missed all of pre-season testing, Marussia has had to work on understanding the MR01 throughout the season, with only a few small updates being added. Booth has now confirmed that the team has a complete new package to add for Silverstone, and says it holds more significance than just providing increased performance.

"We have a fairly significant upgrade for this race, comprising a new rear wing, exhausts, floor and side pods," Booth said. "I would have to describe this as our 'first proper wind-tunnel generated upgrade of the season'; we've had some smaller parts in Malaysia and China, and a few small iterations recently, but this is the first fully developed package that is not just a modification of existing elements. That is a big result in itself, aside from the performance step we hope it will bring us, as it means we have caught up with ourselves in terms of the diligent way in which we have approached and developed our Technical Partnership."

Booth also revealed that the upgrade will be tested during a straight-line test at Duxfold Airfield ahead of the grand prix.

"We look forward to seeing what this brings, both at Silverstone and at Duxford Airfield beforehand, when we will be integrating the developments into our correlation programme. Duxford is also the first of our Test Driver Maria De Villota's scheduled track days. She has been waiting patiently all year for this date to come around, so we look forward to seeing her in the car for the first time."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
ESPN Staff Close