Jules Bianchi believes Marussia have come on leaps and bounds during winter and is hopeful they will kick on when the season gets underway.
The Frenchman joined the Oxfordshire-based squad only last week, but he immediately found the MR02 to his liking as he posted a 1:23.167s on the final day of testing in Barcelona to finish ahead of both Toro Rosso drivers and Giedo van der Garde of Caterham in the overall times.
It's a major improvement for Marussia who often lagged behind their rivals in terms of pace last season and Bianchi hopes it's a sign of things to come.
Asked by Autosport if he thought Marussia was one if the big improvers over the winter, he replied: "If you look at the lap times, yes, we've improved a lot.
"It's a small surprise that we did quite a good improvement and I'm happy with that.
"Even from my side, just from Saturday to Sunday, it is a big improvement. But we don't know what people were doing so it is difficult to say what the [relative] improvement is."
Although he is delighted with the progress Marussia have made, he is cautious about making any big predictions.
"We have to be realistic - it'll be difficult to beat the cars in the midfield, but we'll try our best," he added. "You never know..."
