Marussia F1 Team
Marussia team principal John Booth has said that progress on his squad's 2014 car is ahead of schedule, with six weeks until the first pre-season test begins in Spain.
Marussia finished in 10th place in the 2013 championship, with Booth conceding that his team abandoned their 2013 season early in order to divert resources onto 2014's package.
Chilton edging towards 2014 Marussia seat
"The problem with a team of our size is that building a 2014 car from scratch has taken all our resources," he told Sky Sports F1.
"So from Barcelona onwards, we haven't really brought any updates to the car. We've brought small updates but nothing major."
"We've put all our resource and efforts into our 2014 car - which is on schedule. In fact, it's ahead of schedule. So we had to make that choice. Some teams have that choice but they have a parallel development plan going; we don't have that luxury."
Formula 1 enters a new era next year, with 1.6 litre v6 power units replacing the 2.4 litre v8 engines that have been in operation since 2006.
Marussia has been supplied by Cosworth since their debut, as Virgin Racing, in 2010 but they will switch to Ferrari power next year. Booth says that their new partners have been a huge help.
"[Ferrari is] proving to be a bloody great company to work with. They even supplied us information we needed before we'd signed the contract, because they knew our deadlines were getting too late for the engine stage. That was amazing."
Booth is optimistic that, with Ferrari on board, Marussia can progress above the battle for 10th place.
"I hope we're not battling for tenth place next year - we could be in the pound seats."
"We definitely chose the right partner; I'm 100 per cent sure. I haven't got the slightest doubt it won't be right. If it's not right instantly, it will be right."
