This morning, ahead of the opening day of pre-season testing in Jerez, Spain, Formula 1 Team - Marussia, revealed 2013 challenger, named MR02. The MR02 represents a comprehensive evolution of the 2012 car, which proved to be the most successful package in our three formative years of competition, borne out by its progressive development during the latter half of last season. Certain elements of the new chassis have been subject to redesign to accommodate important new developments aimed at achieving a further performance step. In addition, the MR02 is the first complete car conceived using a design philosophy of CFD complementing wind tunnel. Although our 2012 in-season development was conducted in this way, the MR01 from conception to launch was all-CFD.
The heart of the car bears the most significant area of redevelopment due to the requirement to accommodate the KERS installation, which is new to the package this season. This created a busier-than-usual programme for the designers as they sought to integrate the system whilst, at the same time, reducing the overall weight of the chassis, maintaining stiffness and meeting the demands of the mandatory FIA crash tests. Marussia have met all those requirements, aided by a strong partnership between the Marussia F1 Team engineering department and the first-class support provided by Williams Advanced Engineering in respect of the adopted KERS system.
