Marussia’s Max Chilton on his Abu Dhabi debut 01 Nov 2012
This Friday in Abu Dhabi, Marussia reserve Max Chilton will get his first official taste of a Grand Prix weekend when he takes part in the opening free practice session around the Yas Marina Circuit. This is what the British driver had to say about the upcoming experience…
Q: You’ve spent the past three race weekends as reserve driver for the Marussia team. How have you found the experience?
Max Chilton: It’s been a real insight to see how a team works over the course of a race weekend. I spent a little bit of time with Marussia on the weekend I was announced in Singapore but working with them fully has been extremely interesting for me. There are a lot of meetings that go on behind the scenes where a lot of complicated discussions occur between engineers and various team members but it’s great to be involved and see it from the inside with a great team like Marussia.
Q: What have been the main differences from working in a GP2 team to an F1 team?
MC: Probably the number of people who are involved. The F1 team is much bigger than anything in GP2 and certain departments have four times as many people than I’m used to. So that’s been a bit interesting to get your head around. However, I now know everybody’s names which is a bonus!
Q: You have previous experience driving the Marussia Formula One car; do you think this gives you more of an advantage for Friday’s free practice session?
MC: It’s always good to know the car inside out before getting in it so I definitely think that my experience of testing the car and knowing all the controls will help me. The track is going to be very green during the first free practice session so that’s going to be a little tricky, so I’d imagine there won’t be a lot of people pushing particularly early on.
Q: You’ll be gathering data for Marussia during the practice session. Does that add more pressure?
MC: No, not really. I’ve already been given the plan for the session and a run-down of what we’ll be working on, but it doesn’t add any pressure at all because I’m just doing my job.
Q: You’ve driven the Abu Dhabi track previously. What are your thoughts on the circuit?
MC: I like the circuit. I know it’s not high on some drivers’ lists but I think it has a lot of good features such as the last sector which is a nice challenge. I enjoy driving it and find the high-speed chicanes particularly interesting, so I’m really looking forward to getting out there on Friday with the team and doing my best to gather data for them.
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