The final piece of the F1 jigsaw has fallen into place with Jules Bianchi emerging as the second Marussia driver.
It had been expected that Luiz Razia would land the drive however Autosport has announced that deal has dissolved.
Bianchi will slide into the test seat with Marussia in Barcelona and will debut for the team at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in two weeks.
Marussia boss John Booth said the squad had terminated its contract with Razia.
“Having made clear the basis on which we must operate in 2013, and given the steps we had taken to put that new structure in place, we had no alternative but to remain true to the principles which we had identified as being key to securing our long-term future,” Booth was quoted in Autosport.
Bianchi has been impressive in Formula Renault 3.5 and was part of the Ferrari driver academy.
It appeared he was headed to Force India alongside Paul di Resta before German Adrian Sutil was announced in that seat earlier this week.
Meanwhile Romain Grosjean has registered the quickest time on day two of testing at Barcelona.
Grosjean recorded 1:22.716s on soft tyres in the afternoon run after bringing the session to an early end when his Lotus stopped on the track.
Jenson Button was second quickest on medium compound tyres in his McLaren ahead of Pastor Maldonado (Williams).
F1 Barcelona testing day 2
1 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:22.716 | Soft |
2 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:23.181 | Medium |
3 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | 1:23.628 | Soft |
4 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 1:23.743 | Medium |
5 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | 1:23.744 | Medium |
6 | Adrian Sutil | Force India | 1:24.215 | Medium |
7 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 1:25.483 | Soft |
8 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 1:25.598 | Soft |
9 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham | 1:26.316 | Medium |
10 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:26.655 | Medium |
11 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:27.878 | Medium |