Virgin racing reshuffles the management
Virgin has appointed Ian Philips as their Chief Operating Officer (COO) ahead of the 2011 season. The team hasn’t yet launched its car for the upcoming season but they will do so on the 7th of February, in London.
Philips was the COO of Force India before but he left the team before the start of the 2010 season. He is already present with Virgin at the Valencia test.
There has been some other reshuffling in the management of the Virgin team as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Graeme Lowdon will be the team’s president from now on.
Lowdon’s position will be taken by Andy Webb, who was the managing director of the title sponsors of Virgin, Marussia Motors. The president of the Marussia Motors, Nikolay Fomenko was appointed as the engineering director of the team.
The chairman of the Virgin racing team, Darryl Eales said, “The board of directors has reviewed and examined all aspects of the team’s commercial and racing operations during its debut F1 season in order to ascertain what is required to move the team forward
quickly and prudently.”
He further added, “The changes announced today, together with Marussia's wealth of knowledge and experience, provide us with a solid foundation as we enter our second season. I believe we are very fortunate to have such depth of commercial and racing leadership
as we embark on the next step in our ambitious plans for the team.”
Eales claimed that the team was really looking forward to the upcoming season and with hiring right people for the right job, the team will certainly achieve its goals in the long run. He also credited the support from Marussia Motors and said that significant
improvement will be seen in the team with their support.
Virgin was one of the three debutant teams in the 2010 Formula 1 season. The other two teams were Lotus and Hispania Racing Team (HRT). All three teams used the Cosworth engines in the last season.
Amongst the newcomers, Lotus was the best team as it had the most experienced driver line-up and a comparatively better car.
This year, Lotus became the first amongst the new teams to reveal its car for the 2011 season. Lotus is expected to do well in the upcoming season and the team will be looking to finish amongst the mid-field runners this year.
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