The Russian Marussia Formula One team has unveiled its 2013 car, the MR02, with the power boosting Kinetic Energy Recovery System. Marussia and the now-defunct HRT were the only teams on the grid not to use KERS in 2012.

The team’s designers managed to integrate KERS whilst, at the same time, reducing the overall weight of the chassis, maintaining stiffness and meeting the demands of the mandatory FIA crash tests.

The results of the upgrade will be seen once the new season starts on March 17 while the team’s principal John Booth looks forward to it with optimism.

“We embark on the first pre-season test of 2013 feeling very positive about our new car and what lies ahead in this next important chapter in the development of the Marussia F1 Team,” the team’s official website quotes him as saying.

The KERS recovers a moving vehicle's kinetic energy under braking. The energy is stored in a reservoir for later use under acceleration.

"It was said many times during 2012 that, notwithstanding the impressive steps we were taking in other areas of our development, KERS – or the lack of it – was the defining factor in determining our position relative to our immediate competitors," says Booth.

Well, the other important thing Marussia has to accomplish before the first GP in Australia is signing a second driver to partner Max Chilton, who makes his F1 debut this season after the team’s leading driver German Timo Glock left by mutual consent last month.

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