Bianchi sure his experience with Force India will aid Marussia

Marussia announced on Friday night that the Frenchman had replaced Luiz Razia as Max Chilton's team-mate for the 2013 season, and then gave Bianchi his maiden run in the MR02 during Saturday's test at Barcelona.

The announcement came just a week after he had tested Force India's 2013 car at the same circuit, only to miss out on the vacant second seat to Adrian Sutil.

"Of course it's helpful for the team because I have experience from not just the test with Force India last week, but also from last year's free practice sessions," he said.

"I didn't do any races but I have F1 experience, sometimes with Ferrari too, so I think that together with Max, we can do a good job here."

Bianchi said that he could notice a significant difference in performance between the Force India and the Marussia.

He believes that the team will be hard-pushed to improve the MR02 ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in two weeks' time.

"It's easy to compare [where the Marussia is lacking compared to the Force India], but it's not easy to do it [make improvements]," he said.

"Maybe doing it before Melbourne will be a bit tight, but during the season I'm sure we will improve a lot."

Bianchi was 12th fastest on Saturday, the best of his 74 laps being 3.5s slower than that of pacesetter Lewis Hamilton.