It was announced on Monday evening that the Marussia F1 team will not take part at the final test in Barcelona after they failed the last of 18 FIA crash tests.
The team had hopes of unveiling their new MR01 at the final test in Barcelona on March 1st.
The team had ran the 2011 spec of their car at the previous test, allowing rookie Charles Pic to get his first real taste of driving an F1 car, but pulled out on the final day due to a problem with the right rear suspension. With Pic due to make his debut at the first race in Australia this will be a real setback for the French rookie and his German team mate Timo Glock.
Rookie, Charles Pic, gathered over 300 laps at previous test
In a statement given on Monday night the Marussia team said, “All cars are required to pass 18 FIA-observed tests for homologation to be granted. Despite the fact that the MR01 has passed all 17 of the preceding tests, the regulations require the car to have completed all of the tests before running commences,”
“The team will now not take part in the final pre-season test in Barcelona later this week [1-4 March] and will instead focus its efforts on repeating the crash test at the end of the week.”
All teams are required to pass a crash test issued by the FIA before they are allowed to run, with HRT being the last of their rival teams to pass the tests, on Friday.
The team will now focus on passing the final test before the season kicks off on March 16th.
