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| Marussia F1 Team driver Max Chilton revealed its KERS fitted Cosworth powered 2013 F1 car, the MR02, on the first day of the pre-season test at Jerez circuit on February 5, 2013 |
Russian-owned Marussia F1 Team unveiled its Cosworth powered 2013 challenger, the MR02,
on the first day of the pre-season test at Jerez. After Timo Glock’s exit from the
team, the team is yet to sign a replacement and the British rookie Max Chilton is the only
confirmed driver for the 2013 season so far.
For the first time in the history of the team, their car has been fitted with a KERS
unit with the aim of being able to break into the top 10 of the Constructors’
Championships standings this season. Further, they also have a also fitted the MR02 with
an all new exhaust.
The MR02 is the first offering from Marussia’s revised technical structure where
they have also started using the wind tunnel technology, instead of solely using CFD
(Computational Fluid Dynamics) technology, based on which they had developed the
MR01.
MR02’s design philosophy has also employed wind-tunnel development, as part of
Marussia’s technical partnership with McLaren Applied Technologies. The installation
of the KERS was done with support by Williams Advanced Engineering.
Needless to say installing a KERS unit into the car is of critical importance for a
team like Marussia, and to do that they had to go through the painstaking process of not
only redesigning their car in entirety but at the same time reduce the weight and maintain
the stiffness to pass the mandatory FIA crash tests.
Another major development in the car was the enhanced cooling efficiency to improve the
airflow over the rear of the car. The team will make more upgrades to the aerodynamics
during and after the pre-season tests. Therefore one can expect a lot of changes in the
aerodynamics of the MR02 before the start of the season at the Australian Grand Prix in
Melbourne.
Team Principal John Booth said “We are not kidding ourselves, F1 is pretty tricky
and we've turned this car out with 165 people - and we should be really proud of that. But
we shouldn't put our expectations against Red Bull, who have 500 people and four times the
budget.”
The team has finally managed making a complete package of all that they need to move
ahead of fellow backmarkers. The MR02 is packaged with a KERS, a Coanda exhaust, and a
high front chassis together with a partly covered stepped nose. Last year Marussia was one
of the few teams without the infamous stepped nose.
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