The rules of Formula1 racing have been tweaked for this year. While till last year it was perfectly alright for a car to run in preseason tests without passing all crash tests it is no longer the case. In the past, a car had to pass all the crash tests prior to the commencement of the first race of the season. From this year on, to be able to run in preseason testing too the cars have to pass all the mandatory crash tests. Team HRT had a tough time but a few days ago their car finally passed all the mandatory crash tests. However, HRT will not be in a position to run their car in the next test session at Barcelona since they are now racing against time to build cars to take part in the test.
The case of Marussia Racing (Virgin Racing till last year) is even worse with the car not having passed all the crash tests. Without doubt the car will not make it to any of the preseason tests and it remains to be seen if Marussia will even have a car ready in time for the first GP of 2012.