Virgin F1 team to race under Russian flag

Virgin Racing will compete with a Russian licence this season as part of their partnership with sportscar maker Marussia Motors, the Formula One team said on Monday.

Team president Graeme Lowdon told Reuters at the launch of the new MVR-02 car that Virgin had obtained the agreement of Britain’s governing body, the Motor Sports Association (MSA), to make the switch.

“There’s actually quite close links between the MSA and the Russian federation and there’s a lot of training going on and things like that,” he explained.

“It’s really quite an important thing for our investors.

“I don’t think they will be dusting down the national anthem just yet,” he added with a smile.

British-based Virgin, whose principal John Booth is a proud Yorkshireman, were one of three new teams who made their debut last year without scoring a point.

They will be the second Russian team to have raced in F1 after Midland, who later became Spyker and are now Force India, competed in 2006.

“It is a little bit more cosmopolitan now,” Lowdon said of the sport. “It’s not quite what racing under a different licence would have been years and years ago. But for the whole team it would be a proud moment if we could see the (Russian) flag flying.”

The new car, designed like the last one entirely on computers and without the use of a wind tunnel, should represent a big step up from the 2010 challenger that started that season with a fuel tank too small to be sure of finishing all races — not that the car was often in sight of the chequered flag.

“We had a tough but incredibly rewarding baptism into Formula One last season,” said Booth before the unveiling in a BBC studio in west London attended by a crowd of fans as well as the media and sponsors.

“2011 is all about moving forward and starting to achieve solid results,” he added.

“The MVR-02 is a clear step forward in every area and a credit to all the hard work that has gone into our car development programme over the past 12 months.”

Technical head Nick Wirth said the team was “just much better prepared for this season.

“We have addressed every single issue that troubled us last year, but in our own unique digital way.

“For example the hydraulics and gearbox oil problems of last year have resulted in us doing more CFD (computational fluid dynamics) in those areas alone than we used in the entire aero design programme for our first digital race-winning sportscar in 2008,” said the Briton.

Virgin have Belgian driver Jerome D’Ambrosio joining this season as partner to experienced German Timo Glock.