Virgin Racing Struggling to Catch Up
When Manor Motorsports claimed one of the spots on the F1 grid for the 2010 season, there was reason for optimism that it could move to the front of the list of new teams. The team would arrive with much publicity after rebranding itself Virgin Racing following a partnership with billionaire Richard Branson. With respected drivers Timo Glock and Luca di Grassi driving the team cars, there was every reason to think that the team could find success early.
However, the realities of being a new Formula 1 team quickly set in for Virgin Racing. The team formed late and had to scramble to get things together. This included the design of the team’s cars, but team engineer Nick Wirth insisted that the team could cut down on the time needed to ramp up thanks to technology. Virgin Racing’s team was completely designed and tested through computer simulations, eschewing the wind tunnel testing is a staple of chassis development for other teams.
While designing the new car from a virtual model might have sounded great and forward-thinking on paper, many people inside the sport questioned whether it was feasible. Wirth insisted that designing a car using computer models would eliminate variables that can hamper calculations. But the team’s initial test session at Jerez in the offseason showed that there are certain things that you cannot plan for in a computer simulation, such as the front wing falling off the car. The team did not have a spare wing and were forced to bring an embarrassing halt to their maiden Formula 1 test session.
That episode has been a microcosm of the season for Virgin Racing. There have been a few bright spots, but overall the team’s only real on-track competition has been the other new teams on the grid. While they (like everyone else) are ahead of the HRT Team midway through the season, they are likely a step behind Lotus in terms of overall results. The bottom line is that none of the three new teams have scored points heading into the German Grand Prix, and it appears unlikely that Virgin Racing will be breaking that trend any time soon.
Losing the front wing and not have a spare in their first test session was embarrassing. Unfortunately for the Virgin Racing team, it wasn’t the most embarrassing thing to happen to the team so far this season. Glock and di Grassi were forced to drive extremely cautiously in the first few races of the season because the team was worried about fuel consumption (new rules in 2010 prohibited refuelling during stops).
The reason for the lack of fuel efficiency soon became clear - the team had designed the car with a fuel cell that was smaller than the maximum allowed by Formula 1. The red-faced team was forced to admit its mistake — something that left many people chortling about the quality of the “virtual” car — and was allowed to fix the problem.
Even though the fuel problem has been fixed, the team has yet to find the speed or reliability needed to make a splash in the sport. Glock has only finished four of the first 10 races this season, including another embarrassing incident when the race started with his car still on the jack and unable to start because of mechanical problems. di Grassi has had similar reliability problems, completing only half of the first 10 races.
There’s little reason to wonder why Glock is rumoured to be leaving for Renault at the end of the season. The team has had trouble inking sponsorships other than Virgin Racing, which is one reason why Mexican driver Sergio Perez might be with the team next season. Along with being a top driver in the GP2 Series, Perez also comes with the sponsorship backing of Mexican telecommunications giant Telemex.
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