Asked what his hopes were for the season-opening race, Chilton joked: “Lots of
points, hopefully a podium, maybe a race win and a bit of champagne.
“The first few ones are the races to nail it, because they are the ones where
not everyone is quite ready, and don’t get the best out of their cars or are
having reliability issues.
“If you can have a good bit of performance and reliability, it’s a good chance
to make your impact.”
Although Chilton’s consistency on Sundays impressed minnows Marussia, who are
still searching for their first point in Formula One in their fifth season,
the Briton was often frequently outshone by his French team-mate Jules
Bianchi in qualifying.
While the team praised Chilton’s performance, they said they expected him to
be closer to Bianchi in qualifying across the 2014 season.
“Yes [we expect more from Max],” said John Booth, Marussia team principal.
“Max worked very hard on closing the gap throughout the year. He’s a very
intelligent guy. He didn’t panic.
“He knew he just had to work harder, which is exactly what he did. He really
upped his game from about Austin onwards, maybe a bit before.”
At one point in the winter it seemed as if Marussia might struggle to be on
the grid, with IT and other problems severely hampering their running in the
second test in Bahrain. But at the end of the final test, Chilton ended
seventh fastest and was encouraged by the car’s performance.
With significant changes to the rules for 2014, particularly with the new
hybrid power units, the rate of attrition in early races is expected to be
high, prompting Jenson Button among others to back Marussia to score points.
Booth said the team head into Australia with “cautious optimism”, while
Chilton said he had been buoyed by how Marussia ended pre-season.
“The feeling in the team is good”, he said. “We’re a strong team. We’ve gone
through some pretty hard times, and we know the best thing to do is keep
working harder when it’s going wrong. It’s nice to know we’ve got a
reliable, fairly fast car under our belts.”
The team finished 10th in the constructors’ championship in 2013, and have
faced criticism for failing to bridge the gap to the midfield since they
joined the sport. Despite this, Booth believes the team have slowly won the
respect of the rest of the Formula One paddock.
“I think it’s been a slow process but I think we do get respect from people
within the paddock”, the 59-year-old said. “The wider TV audience is much
more difficult, because they see us on the starting grid with Red Bull. They
probably won’t know there’s any difference in budgets or numbers of staff.”