Russian car manufacturers Marussia buy Virgin’s stake
Team Virgin has had a very disappointing first season after the team decided to begin its career in the sport. Lotus racing team is the only team that seems to have a promising future while the rest of the three new teams including Virgin and HRT have been
extremely sloppy since the beginning of the 2010 season. However, both of the teams have secured their spot on the 2010 Formula 1 grid but are still struggling financially.
Virgin has not been able to give a decent performance since its debut earlier in 2010 but the team has managed to secure its future for a long period after selling one of its major shareholding to Russian sportcar manufacturers Marussia Motors. The team
will be known as Marussia Virgin racing starting from the 2011 season.
According to some reports, Marussia bought the team stake previously that was held by Lloyds Banking Group after a contract signing held in London between the two parties last Saturday. Virgin’s team boss Sir Richard Branson stated that since this was the
team’s first year in the sport, the team was obviously going to struggle especially because of the worldwide recession.
“Virgin is delighted to have secured a partner which shares our vision and spirit for challenging the establishment and we look forward to working together to move the team up the F1 grid,” Sir Richard Branson, Virgin's boss, explained.
Nikolai Fomenko took the initiative to set up Marussia Motors as he was an ex driver and he believes that this deal will definitely up lift both parties in a positive way.
"Now we can state with full certainty that we have our team in Formula One. Of course, it was not an easy decision for us. I'm not entitled to disclose the contract value, but it's big money, believe me,” said Nikolai.
Andrey Cheglakov, a co-invesor of Marussia believes that the team needs to gain more popularity and if they want to stay alive in Formula 1 and grow at the same time.
However, the team is interested in signing the Russian driver Vitaly Petrov in the near future as well.
“Today I am unable to provide him with a competitive car. And he needs to continue his career in a fast car. Just wait for one more season,” said Fomenko.
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