Marussia Virgin Racing - 2011 Preview

It's hard to think of a team that disappointed more in 2010 than Virgin Racing. They came along and they talked the talk, the highlight being Richard Bransons bet with Tony Fernandes about whoever finished behind the other in the Constructors having to be a stewardess on their airline. But when push came to shove, Virgin failed dismally. While HRT was derided for their poor performance, they did in fact manage to finish ahead of Virgin in the standings come years end. And apart from the two fill in drivers in Sakon Yamamoto and Christian Kilen, the Virgin drivers in Timo Glock and Lucas DiGrassi finished dead last in the Drivers standings. An all around failure. So where did it all go wrong?

Is it perhaps the complete dependence on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to design their car in favour of windtunnel? Perhaps. In simple terms it means they just put the blueprints in the computer and based it off that without ever actually building a scale model or prototype they could actually touch and look at to see how it's going. The fuel tank bungle at the start of the year coupled with the fact Virgin had the equal most retirements of the year (15, tied with Sauber) suggests the car lacks reliability when there's a complete dependence on CFD.

However on the other hand you can argue just as strongly that of the 3 new teams, Virgin probably had the least F1 experience in it's staff. Colin Kolles at HRT has vast experience, as does Mike Gascoyne as Lotus. In contrast John Booth (Virgins sporting director) had never been in F1 before while Nick Wirth's (technical director) only experience was running the unsuccessful Simtek team for a brief period in 1994 and 1995. So with such experience, it was perhaps unfair to expect them to compete on an equal level as Lotus. But now all the staff have a years worth of experience behind them, and in this sense we can expect to see steps forward.

The main area this must be expected is improving and bettering the car during the year, unlike last year when it just fell further and further behind the top cars as the year went on. At the start of the season their qualifying pace seemed to match that of the Lotuses. But as the year went on they wound up falling behind even the HRTs. This is despite HRT not developing their 2010 car at all either, they just seemed better equipped to get 100% out of their car than Virgin. This is also an area that will improve with experience.

Virgin also have an asset with a true quality driver in Timo Glock. While not a race winner like Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, he showed true talent in his time at Toyota and no doubt has the capacity. However it's clear Timo doesn't want to be at Virgin, reports saying he grudgingly signed with the team for a second year due to the lack of drives elsewhere. And as talented as a driver may be, if he doesn't want to be at a team he'll be nowhere near his best. You feel this is something that'll take people management skills to get Timo best motivated for the upcoming season, as his performance is no doubt the difference between finishing ahead of Lotus or finishing behind HRT. Especially given the lack of experience of his new teammate Jérôme d'Ambrosi, whose experience extends to a handful of Friday test sessions. It's all going to come down to Timo.

So what can Virgin be aiming for in 2011? No doubt the stated aim will be to be ahead of Lotus & HRT, and maybe even pushing Sauber and Toro Rosso. However a more realistic aim will perhaps be to simply build a more reliable car, and then work on getting it faster during the year. And also to ensure they're comfortably ahead of HRT for most of the year. Because while someone must finish last at the end of the year, you don't want it to be you, and you certainly don't want it to be you two years running.