The importance of experience

Max Chilton may well only be part way through his first season in Formula One, but that experience could well prove to be enough to keep his seat at Marussia.

The 22-year-old Brit is out-of-contract at the end of the season as his debut season in Formula One comes to an end with Marussia.

As debut seasons go in the newbie cars at the back of the grid, Chilton has impressed despite being regularly out performed by Ferrari development driver Jules Bianchi, who has signed a new deal with Marussia for 2014.

It isn’t clear yet just who will partner Bianchi at Marussia for 2014, but it’s becoming clearer that it is likely to be one of Chilton and Kevin Magnussen.

Just as Marussia benefit from their partnership with Ferrari [Marussia are switching to Ferrari engines and power trains for next season and while the Bianchi deal is completely separate, it does help to keep these partnerships well oiled], Marussia also have a key partnership with McLaren and they are desperate to find 21-year-old Danish driver Kevin Magnussen a seat on the Formula One grid as he is part of McLaren’s young driver programme.

But going into the new 2014 season with a high number of technical regulation changes, the importance of experience cannot be underestimated. In fact this was the very reason why Ferrari changed their whole philosophy of being a team built around one driver and opted to partner former F1 World Champions Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen together in a dream team.

Obviously that level of experience isn’t available to Marussia, but simple continuity by keeping the same driver line-up would have its own benefits.

‘One of the things about next year is the technical challenge is going to be huge, for all the teams, A lot of things are going to be new and so I think there’s a strong argument to say that having an experienced line-up would benefit the team. Marussia Sporting Director Graeme Lowdon told Sky Sports.

‘Typically we’ve had an experienced driver and then a young driver alongside, and this year was a departure for us in that we’ve had two rookie drivers who have done an extremely good job.

‘So there’s a strong argument to say that it’d be nice to carry the driver line-up through to next year.’