Virgin VR-01
BBS Wheels (front and rear): 13" | |||||||||||
Competition history | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Notable entrants | Virgin Racing | ||||||||||
Notable drivers | 24. Timo Glock 25. Lucas di Grassi | ||||||||||
Debut | 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix | ||||||||||
Last event | 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix | ||||||||||
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The Virgin VR-01 was a
Virgin Racing formation
In February 2009, Richard Branson's Virgin organisation was reported as bidding to buy the former Honda Formula One team. Branson later stated an interest in Formula One, but claimed Formula One needed to develop a more economically efficient and environmentally responsible image.[7] Virgin later sponsored the new Brawn GP for 2009.[8]
The team was formed as Manor Grand Prix as a tie-up between
The team was meeting prospective sponsors for 2010 at Silverstone at the 2009 British Grand Prix weekend on the very day that F1 threatened to implode amid commercial acrimony and the threat of breakaway championships.[12] Against that landscape the new teams were very much needed as an insurance policy by F1's power brokers. But, once it was obvious that a breakaway was no more likely than at any other time during the previous 30 years, that was not quite so true. There would be no performance breaks for the newcomers, as promised, and the question was whether or not to continue. They ultimately decided to continue but within the financial framework, they had decided on for the old regulations - and could only do that because of Nick Wirth's CFD capability.
With Mercedes-Benz purchasing Brawn at the end of the season, Branson invested in an 80% buyout of Manor Grand Prix,[13][14] with the team being renamed Virgin Racing.
Virgin Racing were based on a three-way partnership between Manor Motorsport, which ran the cars; Wirth Research, which designed them, and Virgin which handled all the commercials. Car preparation and racing operations were run from its headquarters in Dinnington, South Yorkshire; Wirth Research designed, developed, and built the VR-01 from its base in Bicester, before announcing a relocation to new, larger premises in Banbury, Oxfordshire in July 2010.[15]
Virgin Racing had the lowest operating budget of all the teams in 2010 of £40m. Branson said, "Money's not everything. They are determined to prove that via engineering prowess, great drivers, and a great affinity with the public they can do well."
Drivers
On 17 November 2009 it was announced by the team that former Toyota driver
Development
Technical director Nick Wirth took the decision to use only the computer simulation tool CFD to develop the aerodynamics, with no reference to a wind tunnel. John Booth said, "My prediction is that wind tunnels will be a thing of the past and by the time Malaysia1 (Lotus Racing) get theirs built, they will be redundant. When you look at the pace of development, particularly in the front wing area, there's no way that can be done in a wind tunnel -- there are not enough hours in the day. People will start splitting the resource much more towards CFD." Later upgrades to the VR-01 seemed to vindicate that decision.[19]
Like all the new teams Virgin suffered problems with hydraulics, John Booth commented, "Everything connected with the hydraulics was such high pressure that the smallest impurity, crack or fault was a car stopper because it controls four or five major components,"
It had been reported by
Pre season
The car passed its mandatory FIA crash tests, and completed its first track run at
2010 season
At the Bahrain Grand Prix first practice, di Grassi was plagued by mechanical issues, di Grassi could only manage a couple of installation laps whilst Glock was able to coax his car to a 2:03.680. In the Bahrain Grand Prix final practice, Twenty-two minutes into the final practice session at the Sakhir circuit, the nut on Timo Glock's front-left tyre worked loose. The tyre itself rolled off and along the track before hitting a barrier and coming to rest.
For the Australian Grand Prix Virgin Racing was granted permission from Formula One's governing body the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) to change the size of their car's fuel tanks because their capacity was not large enough for their drivers to complete a Grand Prix at full speed; the chassis would not be ready until the Spanish Grand Prix on 9 May. The Lotus T127 was definitely ahead of the VR-01 in terms of both pace and reliability, whilst the Dallara-designed Hispania F110 was a little behind Lotus and Virgin. Glock and Di Grassi qualified 21st and 22nd respectively, but nominated to start their drivers from pit lane after replacing the fuel collectors on their cars after issues in qualifying forced them to run with more fuel than would be ideal.[33] Both cars managed to avoid the spun Alonso on the first lap. On lap 5, Schumacher attempted to pass di Grassi for 19th position but di Grassi managed to retake the position from Schumacher by driving around the outside of Ascari corner, but Schumacher got ahead of di Grassi on the pit straight. di Grassi drove to his garage to retire with an issue with his car's hydraulics on lap 29,[34] while on the 45th lap, Glock made a pit stop and his mechanics retired him from the race because a camber shim on his car was loose and it caused the left rear suspension to move around.[35] Virgin had yet to finish a race, while HRT scooped up a 14th, which would become costly for Virgin at the end of the season.
At the
At the Chinese Grand Prix, Glock was forced to start from pit lane alongside di Grassi after the team failed to lower him from the front jack on the grid in time for the warmup lap. Glock was returned to the pits, but never started after an engine failure manifested itself. Di Grassi trundled behind Karun Chandhok until he retired with clutch failure after and retired on lap 8.[37]
Virgin's solution to their problem of having a too-small fuel tank was to bring a longer chassis to the Spanish Grand Prix to accommodate a larger fuel tank and a brand-new fuel feed system that would allow them to run as light as possible during qualifying.[38] The VR-01 was also given a "shark fin" engine cowling. However, owing to the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland that had disrupted air travel across Europe at the time of the previous race, only one chassis was able to make it to Barcelona, to be used by Timo Glock. In practice, Virgin were given a penalty after the team failed to notify the FIA of changes to their gear ratios before the deadline. Glock and di Grassi qualified 22nd and 23rd,[39] and Virgin scored their first-ever double car finish with 18th and 19th, the last of the finishers, although di Grassi battled with car setup and was the last driver to finish the race.
At Monaco, the Virgin's qualified behind the Lotus' but ahead of the HRT's. Glock and di Grassi tried to defend from Alonso, with di Grassi claiming plenty of TV coverage in the opening stages with Alonso waving his hand at di Grassi's driving up turn 1 and 2. It took 3 laps for Alonso to pass. On lap 22, Glock retired with a broken track rod, and di Grassi retired on lap 25 due to his right-rear wheel becoming loose at his pit stop.[40]
At Turkey Virgin managed to procure a longer-wheelbase version of the VR-01 for Lucas di Grassi after the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull. The Cosworth engines suffered problems, but Virgin managed to score another double finish, ahead of HRT and Lotus, albeit only Chandhok was a classified finisher of these rivals.[41]
At Canada, Hispania improved a lot. They beat Virgin in free practice, and split qualified in front of them. Glock retired due to a steering rack leak that crippled his VR-01 on lap fifty-five. An early flurry of pit calls and incidents helped di Grassi to climb up to 10th place by lap 9, but the Brazilian fell through the field over the following laps as the Virgin VR-01 lacked all of the qualities of its fellow cars. His cause was not entirely helped by a hydraulics issue and he finished 5 laps down.[42]
Hispania was now level with Virgin. At Europe, Virgin qualified ahead of them. On lap 36, Glock attempted to pass Senna around the outside heading into the first corner but was unable to move ahead. On lap 37, Glock again attempted to overtake Senna but the two cars collided. The incident caused a puncture on Glock's car that very nearly threw him into the wall and forced him to make a pit stop, though his crew was not ready for him and he lost several seconds as the tyres were brought out. Senna remained on the circuit with a damaged front wing, and made a pit stop on the next lap. Glock was also given a 20-second time penalty for not observing blue flags. Di Grassi finished 17th, ahead of Chandhok, Glock and Senna.[43][44]
Virgin finally brought a big update to the car for
Di Grassi had impressed the Virgin Racing engineers with his feedback but Booth had not been satisfied with his pace against Glock and scouted an alternative driver that ended with Booth coming into contact with the Belgian racer Jérôme d'Ambrosio.[46] d’Ambrosio became the new Virgin reserve driver, and was handed di Grassi's car in the first Singapore practice session. d’Ambrosio ended the session just over 0.2 seconds behind Glock[47]
At the Japanese Grand Prix, di Grassi out qualified Glock, but had a heavy accident on the way to the grid, leaving the track at the entrance to 130R, fishtailing wildly and spinning out across the run-off area and hitting the wall. Glock, on the other hand, finished a strong 12th, ahead of both
In Korea, di Grassi lost control of his car while trying to overtake the Hispania driver Sakon Yamamoto and crashed into the barriers on the 26th lap. Glock was on a roll in Korea heading for 12th place after starting in 20th in very wet conditions. This 12th place would have meant Virgin would have been 10th in the constructors, since no other of the 3 teams had finished that high. On lap thirty-one, Buemi tried to pass Glock on the outside heading into turn three but lost control of his car under braking and rammed into the side of Glock. Buemi sustained a broken left, front suspension, and front wing damage, causing him to retire.[48] Glock drove back to his pit box where his mechanics examined his car for damage and decided to retire him from the race.[49] This wrecked Virgin's chances of finishing 10th in the Constructors’ table.
At Brazil, di Grassi in his home race struggled with problems with his suspension and despite his team's mechanics rectifying the issue at his mid-race pit stop, he was not classified in the final results. Glock finished 20th.
In November 2010, Bernie Ecclestone called the three new teams "cripples" and said "They do nothing for us, they are an embarrassment. We need to get rid of a few of those cripples. He also said "Richard should put some money in there, shouldn't he? He could do what (Red Bull chief Dietrich Mateschitz) has done and put some money in."[50] But John Booth said that it was unfair to suggest Branson should put more money into the team, saying how "He was very brave joining a start-up operation that might have gone horribly wrong and he's been supportive throughout and brought us new backers."
At the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, di Grassi chose to make a pit stop for new tyres during a safety car period and managed them until the end of the race, while Glock retired. After the race, di Grassi commented "We had to do more than 50 laps with the same set of tyres, which seemed like a difficult task, but we managed it. I am ending the year with a feeling of ‘mission accomplished’”.
Hispania managed to pick up some 15th places in Singapore and Japan, and along with Virgin's unreliability at the start and not finishing 12th in Korea meant
Di Grassi ultimately didn’t have the pace to match Glock, although at times he wasn’t using the same equipment. He was replaced by
Trivia
On 16 December 2009,
Complete Formula One results
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Entrant | Engine | Tyres | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | Points | WCC |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2010 | Virgin Racing | Cosworth CA2010 V8 | B | BHR | AUS | MAL | CHN | ESP | MON | TUR | CAN | EUR | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | SIN | JPN | KOR | BRA | ABU | 0 | 12th | |
Glock | Ret | Ret | Ret | DNS | 18 | Ret | 18 | Ret | 19 | 18 | 18 | 16 | 18 | 17 | Ret | 14 | Ret | 20 | Ret | ||||||
di Grassi | Ret | Ret | 14 | Ret | 19 | Ret | 19 | 19 | 17 | Ret | Ret | 18 | 17 | 20† | 15 | DNS | Ret | NC | 18 |
† Driver failed to finish, but was classified as they had completed >90% of the race distance.
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External links
Media related to Virgin VR-01 at Wikimedia Commons