We may only be two races into the new season, but Marussia have admitted they’re impressed with how Jules Bianchi has performed so far.
The Frenchman was drafted in to replace Luiz Razia at the last minute after the Brazilian encountered financial troubles, which meant Bianchi only participated in two days of pre-season testing.
That doesn’t seem to have hurt his performance though as he has so far outqualified team-mate Max Chilton and both Caterhams in Australia and Malaysia, as well as finishing some distance ahead in both races.
Marussia’s sporting director Graeme Lowdon says he’s impressing a lot of people inside and outside of the team.
“The engineering team are helping him, making sure he’s in the right place on the race track,” Lowdon told Autosport.
“I think he’s impressing a lot of people at the minute.
“He’s not making any mistakes. He had a bit of a wobble on the formation lap in Malaysia, but everybody did. He ran wide but four or five cars did.”
This is Bianchi’s first season in Formula One, but has is more experienced than team-mate Chilton, having been third driver for Force India and a member of Ferrari’s driver academy for many years.
