![]() Charles Pic driving the MR01 at the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix | |||||||||||
Category | Formula One | ||||||||||
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Constructor | Marussia | ||||||||||
Designer(s) | Nikolay Fomenko (Engineering Director) John McQuilliam (Chief Designer) Richard Taylor (Head of Aerodynamics) Pat Symonds (Technical Consultant) | ||||||||||
Predecessor | Virgin MVR-02 | ||||||||||
Successor | Marussia MR02 | ||||||||||
Technical specifications [1] | |||||||||||
Chassis | Carbon fibre monocoque | ||||||||||
Suspension (front) | Carbon fibre double wishbone suspension, with Penske dampers | ||||||||||
Suspension (rear) | As front | ||||||||||
Engine | Cosworth CA2012 2,400 cc (146.5 cu in) 90° V8, limited to 18,000 RPM, naturally aspirated, mid-mounted | ||||||||||
Transmission | Marussia-housed Xtrac 7-speed | ||||||||||
Fuel | Sunoco 260 GT Plus 94.25% 102 RON unleaded gasoline + 5.75% biofuel | ||||||||||
Tyres | Pirelli P Zero (dry), Cinturato (wet) [2] BBS Wheels (front and rear): 13" | ||||||||||
Competition history | |||||||||||
Notable entrants | Marussia F1 Team | ||||||||||
Notable drivers | 24. ![]() 25. ![]() | ||||||||||
Debut | 2012 Australian Grand Prix | ||||||||||
Last event | 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix | ||||||||||
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The Marussia MR01 is the first Formula One racing car designed by Marussia F1 for the 2012 Formula One season, which was driven by Timo Glock and French rookie driver Charles Pic. [5]
Unlike its predecessors, the Virgin VR-01 and Virgin MVR-02, the Marussia MR01 was not designed exclusively with computational fluid dynamics (CFD); instead, the design team employed a combination of wind tunnel testing and CFD modelling in its design. [6] Due to development delays, the team planned to launch the MR01 at the third and final pre-season test session at the Circuit de Catalunya on 1 March 2012, [7] but as the car was unable to pass its mandatory crash tests prior to the final test session the team was not permitted to take part. [8] According to technical advisor Pat Symonds, the car failed its crash tests because one part of the car was performing "inconsistently". [9] The car was later launched on 5 March, following a shakedown at Silverstone Circuit, [10] before passing its final mandatory crash test on 6 March. [11]
The MR01 was the only car to compete initially in the 2012 season without a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), regenerative braking device, though HRT later admitted that their car did not feature KERS. [12] The MR01 was one of only three cars (the others being the McLaren MP4-27 and the HRT F112) not to feature the stepped nose common to most 2012 season designs. [13]
Initially, the MR01 featured a plain nose cone that ran by the conventions of the other teams (flat noses). By the 2012 British Grand Prix, the MR01 sported a bigger nose, making it similar to the solutions used by Force India in 2010 and 2011.
Due to the MR01 not having any proper testing time, the Australian Grand Prix was essentially a test session to see where the car was.[ citation needed ] Unlike rivals HRT, the MR01 was able to run both drivers, with Glock managing twelfth in the second Friday practice session. By Saturday, however, the two Marussias fell to their familiar qualifying spots on the back two rows. However, due to the 107% rule both HRTs failed to qualify, and Sergio Pérez was forced down to 22nd position due to a penalty for changing his gearbox, making the MR01's first qualifying record as 20th and 21st. Glock and Pic stayed towards the back in the race, but picked up places as cars either retired or pitted. During the sole safety car period of the race, the MR01 was able to use the reinstated rule that allows lapped cars to un-lap themselves prior to the race restart. Glock finished the race 14th, while Pic was forced to retire five laps from the finish due to falling oil pressure, but was classified in 15th place as he had completed over 90% of the race distance.
At the second round, the Malaysian Grand Prix, the Marussia MR01 continued to show pace and reliability. Constantly, throughout the weekend, Glock and Pic outpaced their HRT rivals and were able to come very close to Caterham's Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov.[ citation needed ] The two qualified 21st and 22nd, Glock leading Pic. But once the race began on Sunday conditions deteriorated drastically, with the race being red-flagged on lap nine due to torrential rain. After an hour track conditions improved and the race was restarted. Glock finished in 17th, one lap down on the leaders, while Pic made another Marussia double finish with 20th. Due to Petrov only finishing 16th, the Marussia retained 10th place in the Constructors' Championship.
After a three-week break, the MR01 entered the Chinese Grand Prix with minor technical updates. The weekend began with abnormally cold temperatures,[ citation needed ] and Glock suffered an accident during free practice on Saturday. After a look over, Glock and his MR01 continued into qualification, and he and Pic again qualified 20th and 21st for the race. In the early phase of the race tyre problems plagued everyone, with high wear and degradation causing many teams to alter their strategies.[ citation needed ] The two Marussias fended off both HRTs and Kovalainen's Caterham to finish 19th and 20th.
Initially, the Bahrain Grand Prix was under intense criticism regarding whether it should go ahead or be cancelled once again. Qualifying was a first for the MR01 in two ways: Glock only managed 23rd, his worst performance for the season, and Pic out-qualified his teammate for the first time, in 21st. In the race Pic retired on lap 24 with engine issues, leaving Glock to bring the team home. He finished two laps down in 19th, behind the Caterhams and Jenson Button, but ahead of both HRTs and both Williams cars of Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna.
At Spa, Pic set the fastest lap time in a wet Free Practice 2; the highest ever result for the team in any official F1 session. This was due to many teams not setting competitive laps due to the poor conditions. Glock was 6th in the session.
At Singapore, Glock produced his best result for Marussia, finishing in 12th place (making this chassis statistically the most successful for the Virgin/Marussia team), and this crucially put Marussia in front of Caterham in the fight for 10th position in the Constructors' Championship, due to a better non-points finishing record.
On 3 July 2012, test driver María de Villota was testing a car at Duxford Airfield, when she crashed heavily into the lift gate of the team transporter, and sustained serious injuries. She had been performing straight line aerodynamic tests in preparation for the British Grand Prix. On 4 July 2012, it was confirmed that de Villota lost her right eye as a result of the accident. A year later, she died as a result of the injuries.
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Entrant | Engine | Tyres | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | Points | WCC |
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2012 | Marussia F1 Team | Cosworth CA2012 | P | AUS | MAL | CHN | BHR | ESP | MON | CAN | EUR | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | SIN | JPN | KOR | IND | ABU | USA | BRA | 0 | 11th | |
Timo Glock | 14 | 17 | 19 | 19 | 18 | 14 | Ret | DNS | 18 | 22 | 21 | 15 | 17 | 12 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 14 | 19 | 16 | ||||||
Charles Pic | 15† | 20 | 20 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 20 | 15 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 16 | 16 | 16 | Ret | 19 | 19 | Ret | 20 | 12 |
† Driver failed to finish the race, but was classified as they had completed greater than 90% of the race distance.
Timo Glock is a German professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver. He raced in Formula One for the Jordan, Toyota, Virgin Racing and Marussia F1 teams. He finished 10th in the Drivers' Championship in both 2008 and 2009, scoring three podium finishes.
Kamui Kobayashi is a Japanese racing driver. He competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Toyota Gazoo Racing, and in the Super Formula Championship for KCMG. He previously competed in Formula One, Formula E, the GP2 Series, and the GP2 Asia Series. Kobayashi is the 2019–20 and 2021 World Endurance champion and 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans winner along with his team-mates Mike Conway and José María López. He is the third FIA world champion from Japan after Toshi Arai and Kazuki Nakajima.
HRT Formula 1 Team, formerly known as Campos Meta 1 and Hispania Racing, was a Spanish Formula One team founded by former driver Adrián Campos. It was sold to José Ramón Carabante before its debut in 2010, and then to investment group Thesan Capital in July 2011. It was the first Spanish team to race in Formula One; a previous effort known as "Bravo F1" failed to enter the sport in 1993.
Charles Pic is a French retired professional racing driver who drove in Formula One for two full seasons in 2012 and 2013, racing for Marussia F1 Team in the first season and then for Caterham in the second season.
Virgin Racing was a Formula One racing team which was under management of Manor Motorsport, Wirth Research and Richard Branson's Virgin Group and competed in 2010 with a British licence and in 2011 with a Russian licence. It scored no points and finished last in the Constructor's Championship for the two years the team competed.
The Virgin VR-01 was a Formula One motor racing car designed by Nick Wirth for Virgin Racing in the 2010 season. It was driven by former Toyota driver Timo Glock and Brazilian ex-GP2 driver Lucas di Grassi. The car was the first Formula One racing car designed entirely with computational fluid dynamics. The car was due to be launched online through the official team website on 3 February 2010, but technical issues prevented the live internet broadcast from taking place.
The 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 66th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 63rd FIA Formula One World Championship, a motor racing series for Formula One cars, recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) – the governing body of motorsport – as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. The championship was contested over twenty rounds, which started in Australia on 18 March and ended in Brazil on 25 November. The 2012 season saw the return of the United States Grand Prix, which was held at the Circuit of the Americas, a purpose-built circuit in Austin, Texas. After being cancelled in 2011 due to civil protests, the Bahrain Grand Prix also returned to the calendar.
The Hispania F110, also known as the HRT F110, is a Formula One motor racing car designed and built by Dallara for Hispania Racing, for the 2010 season. It was driven by Karun Chandhok, Bruno Senna, Christian Klien and Sakon Yamamoto and was unveiled in Murcia, Spain, on 4 March 2010. It was the first car Hispania Racing entered in Formula One.
The 2012 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Circuit of the Americas in Travis County, near Austin, Texas on November 18, 2012. The race, run over fifty-six laps, was the penultimate round of the 2012 championship. It was the inaugural race at the circuit, and the first time the United States Grand Prix had been held since 2007. On Sunday a capacity crowd of 117,429 watched the race around the brand new 20-turn circuit.
The 2012 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race that took place, at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps near the village of Francorchamps, Wallonia, Belgium on 2 September 2012, the first event after a five-week summer break. It was the twelfth race of the 2012 season, and the seventy-seventh running of the Belgian Grand Prix.
The 2012 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race that took place at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire, England on 8 July 2012. It was the ninth round of the 2012 Formula One season, the 63rd time the event had been a round of the Formula One World Championship, and the 67th time it had been contested overall. The 52-lap race was won by Red Bull driver Mark Webber, who took his second victory of the season. The Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, who started the race in pole position, finished 3.0 seconds behind Webber, in second. Webber's teammate, Sebastian Vettel, completed the podium by finishing in third position.
The 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 25 March 2012 at the Sepang International Circuit in Selangor, Malaysia. It was the fourteenth running of the Malaysian Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship, and the thirty-second time the event has been held. The 56-lap race was the second round of the 2012 Formula One season and was won by Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso. Sergio Pérez of the Sauber team finished the race in second position, and McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton completed the podium with third place after starting in pole position.
The 2012 Singapore Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race that took place at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Marina Bay, Singapore on 23 September 2012 as the fourteenth round of the 2012 season. The race was the thirteenth time that a Singapore Grand Prix has been held, and the fifth time it was a round of the Formula One World Championship.
The Virgin MVR-02 is a Formula One racing car designed by Wirth Research for Marussia Virgin Racing, and used by them during the 2011 Formula One season. Like its predecessor, the Virgin VR-01, the MVR-02 was designed entirely with computational fluid dynamics, with Nick Wirth's design studio doubling their CFD capacity ahead of the 2011 season. The addition of the "M" in the car's chassis designation reflected the team's new owner, Russian sports car manufacturer Marussia Motors. The car was unveiled in London on 7 February 2011, and was driven during the racing season by returning driver Timo Glock and debutant Jérôme d'Ambrosio.
The 2013 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 67th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 64th FIA Formula One World Championship, a motor racing series for Formula One cars, recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) – the governing body of motorsport – as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. Eleven teams and twenty-three drivers contested the nineteen Grands Prix that made up the calendar for the 2013 season, with the winning driver being crowned the World Drivers' Champion and the winning team the World Constructors' Champions. The season started in Australia on 17 March 2013 and ended in Brazil on 24 November 2013.
The Caterham CT01 is a Formula One racing car produced by the British-based Caterham F1 Team which competed in the 2012 Formula One season. The car, designed under the leadership of the team's technical director Mike Gascoyne, chief designer Lewis Butler and head of aerodynamics Marianne Hinson, was the third car to be produced by the team and the first to carry the team's new name, following their renaming from Team Lotus at the end of 2011. The CT01 was the first car launched for the 2012 season, when an online launch initially planned for 26 January, was cancelled and the car was released a day earlier instead. The car was driven by Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov, who replaced Jarno Trulli after the first test at Jerez.
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The Marussia F1 Team was a Formula One racing team and constructor which was based in Banbury, Oxfordshire and then later Dinnington, South Yorkshire in the United Kingdom and competed with a Russian licence from 2012 to 2014 and a British licence in 2015. The team was operated by Manor Motorsport, which was previously a subsidiary of Marussia Motors, a now defunct sports car manufacturer which was based in Moscow. The team originally started racing in 2010 under the "Virgin Racing" name; the following year Virgin adopted Marussia as a title sponsor becoming "Marussia Virgin Racing" until being fully rebranded as the "Marussia F1 Team" for 2012.
The Caterham F1 Team was a Malaysian, later British owned Formula One team based in the United Kingdom which raced under a Malaysian licence. The Caterham brand competed in the Formula One World Championship from 2012 to 2014, following the acquisition of British sportscar manufacturer Caterham Cars by former owner and team principal Tony Fernandes, forming the Caterham Group.
The Marussia MR02 is a Formula One racing car designed under the leadership of Marussia's Technical Director Pat Symonds. It made its competitive debut in the 2013 Formula One season where it was driven by debutant drivers Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi, who replaced Luiz Razia, the team's original choice for the seat. The car was launched at the Circuito de Jerez on 5 February, making the MR02 the first car that Marussia has completed in time to start winter testing.
In 2012, however, Virgin will be the only team on the grid without a KERS system, with HRT having extended its Williams gearbox/hydraulics agreement to include the power-boosting device.