Marussia to miss last testing

February 28th 2012 (F1plus team).- Things seems not to be going well at Marussia F1 team as they announced they will not be able to bring the new car for the last Barcelona testing of next week.

The squad's new challenger, the MR01, failed to pass mandatory FIA crash tests. The team is now working hard to fix the issues with its car ahead of the first race at Albert Park in Australia.

The Banbury-based team released an statement explaining the situation ; “The Marussia F1 Team is disappointed to confirm that the planned first test of its 2012 race car - the MR01 - has been delayed as a consequence of not passing the final FIA crash test.

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 had originally scheduled to launch launhing the MR01 in time for the second pre-season test but delays meant the launch was pushed back until this week. Now with this new set back, Marussia will have a hard time to catch up and tune its new car.

Last week, at Circuit of Catalunya in Barcelona, current drivers Charles Pic and Timo Glock used last year's MVR-01, which gave Pic a bit of hands on experience and provide some understanding of the new Pirlelli compounds.

Hispania Racing team is the other outfit that has not launched its new car, which they expect to do next week at Barcelona.