MOSCOW, July 19 (R-Sport) - Marussia’s Max Chilton delivered a strong rebuke to critics who think the British rookie is not fast enough be in Formula One, in comments to R-Sport on Friday.
In a parting shot before leaving Marussia earlier this week, the team’s former technical consultant Pat Symonds, who has been in F1 for three decades, said the inexperience of Chilton and his teammate Jules Bianchi was costing the team more than half a second a lap.
“An F1 team isn’t going to accept two drivers who aren’t capable of getting the most out of the car,” he said.
Chilton argued the figure specified by Symonds bore no relation to reality. “I wouldn’t say that there’s that much left in the car,” he said.
“I don’t believe there’s half a second, but I agree that the more experience you’ve got - people like [Fernando] Alonso, like Jenson [Button], like Lewis [Hamilton] that have been in here so long - they can get a little bit more out of it.”
Since Chilton joined the sport, displacing the less well funded Luis Razia from the Marussia seat he had been occupying, some of the media focus has been on his father Grahame’s reported $150 million fortune, although Chilton has said his campaign would be funded solely by other sponsors.
Chilton’s best finish in nine races this season is 14th at the Monaco Grand Prix in May.
