Virgin Racing was one of the three new teams that joined F1 last season, but Richard Branson’s latest plaything has always been in the shadow of Lotus Racing and now Team Lotus. But there’s a shake up happening within, which has already seen technical director Nick Wirth leave. Now, Virgin has announced a technical partnership with front runners McLaren, which will give them access to Woking’s top notch facilities.
“Under the terms of this technical partnership, Marussia Virgin Racing will be able to access McLaren’s wind tunnel, simulator, rigs, and fitness and well being programmes. These properties are state-of-the-art, and we confidently therefore expect Marussia Virgin Racing to derive significant benefits from them,” revealed McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh.
“When we undertook our detailed review of the team in the first half of 2011, it was clear that our bold ambitions for the future would need to be matched with some equally bold steps towards achieving them. Our technical partnership with McLaren is very exciting indeed. McLaren is one of the most prestigious and successful marques in grand prix racing history, with an enviable record of success over many years,” said Andy Webb, CEO of Virgin Racing.
“We can benefit enormously from McLaren’s far-reaching techniques and capabilities and I have no doubt that this partnership will see us take the technical steps necessary to make a significant leap forwards,” he added.
All this comes after Virgin hired Pat Symonds as consultant since the start of this season. The former Renault man was implicated in the 2009 Crashgate scandal, and is serving a ban till 2013 that doesn’t allow him to take an official position. He will continue working for Virgin.
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bye2 TL. bye2 TF. u'll lose to this. :P
Seems virgin eager to get Mercedes engine next year…means Lotus-Renault vs Virgin-Mercedes straight fight…
When FIA ban blown-exhaust…mercedes engine will be superior..Lotus will be defeat by virgin hahahaha
in the good land of britain
two teams managed to put aside their differences
and begin exploring avenues to work together
in the good land of malaysia
two teams also managed to put aside their swords
and begin using RPGs shooting at each other
and those shoots arent of ‘friendly firing’ anysort
of course in good land of britain
the less successful ones start approaching
their well placed in the ranking sibling
that to happen in maresia?
no chance