Will Stevens isn’t expecting a repeat of Marussia’s points scoring debut at the Monaco Grand Prix, courtesy of Jules Bianchi’s ninth place finish last year.
The Briton expects to be closer to the midfield pack due to the nature of the circuit and the nominated tyre allocation, but he has ruled out points barring an incident filled race.
“If there’s any race where we’re going to be closer, it’ll be Monaco, for sure,” Stevens told Crash.net.
“Using the supersofts there will help us more than the other teams – [Spain] was always going to be difficult because we were using the hard tyre and that doesn’t work for us, so, in Monaco, straight away we’re going to be in a better position.
“Last year was a massive race for the team, and I’m sure there’ll be a lot more argy-bargy in the middle of the field, so we’ll have to try and pick up the pieces if there’s anything left. If it’s a normal race, I’m pretty confident we won’t be scoring points but I’ll be pushing to make that happen.”
Whilst Manor is likely to remain pointless, Stevens hopes to finish higher than their current best of 15th, something he is confident of doing if he can stay out of trouble.
“Like I said, if there’s going to be any race where we’re [going to repeat 2014], it’ll be there,” he added. “The last two years, I think, there have been mixed conditions on Friday and Saturday, so there’s always a chance for the race to be spiced up a little bit. There’s usually safety cars and other bits and pieces so, if we do a good job as a team and get the maximum from the car – and if there’s a few incidents here and there – I’m sure we’ll finish higher than we have so far this year.”
