Former Renault Technical Chief Pat Symonds to give Virgin cars a review – Formula 1 Update
Virgin team has called the former Renault Technical Chief Pat Symonds to review the development process of their 2011 Marussia-Virgin cars, MVR-02.
Virgin Boss, John Booth stated that Pat is working with the engineers, but his main task will be to point out the weak link in their car.
John commented about Symonds’ role, which is currently working as a consultant for the Virgin team, and said, “He works with the engineers daily, but his main job at the moment is to take an overview of where we are. I am sure within a month or two he will
give us some conclusions and pointers.” John further added that Symonds works well with the engineers and gives some good hope about the 2011 Formula 1 season.
Virgin team’s 2011 target was to be at least ahead of the Hispania Racing Team, Lotus and Williams cars. So far all four teams have zero points in the constructor’s table in the opening three races of the season but Virgin is 11th on the table,
just above the HRT team.
Talking about the performance of the Virgin team, John commented, “We have stagnated, we haven't moved on – and that is the most disappointing thing. We are lacking down force. There is no question about that. It is a matter of just rolling our sleeves up
and getting it sorted.” He further added that down force will be added to the car before the Turkish Grand Prix next month.
The upgrades in the Virgin car will include a new floor, improved brakes, a tweaked diffuser new exhausts and a new front wing. The Virgin cars are also due for a wind tunnel test which will be conducted in the Mercedes GP facility in Brackley.
The opening three Grand Prix of the 2011 season were not good for the Virgin team because only on one occasion, in China, both cars saw the chequered flag. In Australia only Jerome D’Ambrosio finished the race and in Malaysia, Timo Glock was able to finish
the race.
With Turkish Grand Prix less than three weeks away, it will be interesting to see how far the upgrades will go in improving Virgin’s performance.
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