24/11/2013
NEWS STORY
At the season finale in Sao Paulo today, the Marussia F1 Team finally triumphed over the Caterham team, clinching the hard-fought and well-deserved 10th place in the Constructors' Championship that it has held since the opening round in Australia.
There were emotional scenes in the Marussia garage as the Team's drivers delivered the right result, Jules finishing ahead of the last remaining Caterham of Van Der Garde and Max maintaining his record of 19 finishes out of 19 races - the best finishing record for a driver in his rookie year.
Jules Bianchi: "Well done to everyone in the Team on a fantastic season and the well-deserved 10th place in the Championship. Thanks for all the hard work and dedication to providing us with the best car possible right until the end. Today, I got a fantastic start once again and the opening lap was strong, but a few laps in I struggled with some graining on the Medium tyre and it was really tough to drive round this, which caused me to have to yield the place. I knew it was all about the long game and just sticking with it, knowing that the balance would be much better on the prime Hard tyre. I dug in and drove as fast as I could on the next two stints to make as much progress as possible and it is nice that not only have we got 10th today but we finished ahead of Caterham again. This has been a very important and rewarding year for me personally and I can't wait for us to take that to the next level together in 2014."
Max Chilton: "It was hard finding our way today having only driven in the wet all weekend. We had just the sighting laps to the grid to make a few changes in order to try to optimise the dry balance as best we could. The middle part of the race was quite nail-biting with the constant threat of rain, but I knew that all I had to do was keep going and be ready for any scenario, especially with the weather. In the last stint I struggled with a vibration on front left tyre, which was really costing me time and that is why we pitted for an unscheduled third stop. I would like to thank the whole Team for a brilliant season, with particular credit to my car crew. I am really proud of my record-breaking 19 finishes in 19 races and this is the result of a fantastic Team effort."
John Booth, Team Principal: "Although we have held on to 10th place in the Championship all season, we still had to cross the line at the season finale in order to get the job done. The Brazilian Grand Prix is renowned for being one of the most chaotic races on the calendar and so we needed to have our wits about us throughout the full 71 lap race, especially as there was the constant threat of rain. Although we encountered a few light showers, the way the race eventually panned out meant that no one was going to challenge our position today.
This has certainly been a character-building season. At the beginning we had a clear advantage over Caterham, then we lost some ground during the middle part of the year. Over the final long-haul phase we have pushed extremely hard, caught up and enjoyed some proper racing with them, with our performance in Austin last weekend underlining our continued progress and providing the perfect prelude to the finale here. With zero dry running before going to the grid, today was a tough ask of our two young drivers, who have never driven at this circuit before and had to go out there and be on it from lap 1. They were improving at every stage of the race and towards the end, in very damp conditions, Jules was running exceptionally well on the prime tyre and pulling away from Van der Garde.
Credit to the whole Team - both trackside and back at base in Banbury - for an incredibly hard-fought 2013 campaign. Well done to both Jules and Max, who have performed admirably in a tough rookie season, having more than risen to the challenge. Congratulations also to Max for his fantastic record of 19 finishes in 19 races, which is a testament to his skill and the Team's fantastic reliability record. Finally, today's result is about the whole package, and so credit to our powertrain partners, Cosworth and Xtrac, with whom we have worked for four rewarding seasons, as well as our Team Partners and Suppliers who have shared the journey with us."
Check out our Grand Prix gallery, here