Virgin Racing signs Di Grassi
Manor was officially rebranded as Virgin Racing at an event in London on Tuesday
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Tuesday, 15, Dec 2009 10:14
By Adam Leveridge
Manor grand prix has been officially rebranded as the Virgin Racing team at an event in London, where Lucas di Grassi was announced as the second driver.
At an event in Notting Hill, Manor made its first public appearance as Virgin Racing, and confirmed that former Renault reserve driver and GP2 star Di Grassi will race the second of its cars alongside Toyota refugee Timo Glock in 2010.
Although Glock signed a contract with the team weeks ago, Di Grassi was only able to commit to the outfit quite recently, having just tested for the Renault team at the young drivers' test in Jerez two weeks ago.
Manor were awarded a place on the 2010 grid in June and will join three other new teams Campos Meta, USF1 and 1Malaysia Lotus.
In the wake of the fallout between the FIA and the Formula One Teams' Association (Fota) over regulation changes for the 2010 season, F1 teams agreed to bring costs down to 1990s levels that will see them cap spending to around £100 million.
However, Virgin Racing have stated they intend to run on a budget of £40 million per year, as proposed by former FIA president Max Mosley.
"It feels great to be here, it's a dream come true for me after two years of being a test driver, and from that and from GP2 I feel I'm ready and am very confident in this team," said Di Grassi.
"We're here to race, not to do politics or mess around, we're here to race."
The team's sporting director John Booth said Virgin has the perfect driver line-up for its debut season in F1.
"I have 20 years' experience working with drivers," said Booth.
"I have been privileged to work with some fantastic drivers in that time and I hope that's helped in giving me an eye for a good driver.
"The four drivers we have here are the four we wanted in our line-up, they're the perfect drivers."
The team also announced that GP2 racers Alvaro Parente and Luiz Razia will join Glock and Di Grassi at the team in a reserve and test driver capacity.
Parente said he intends to do the best job he can in order to bring the team success.
"I'm going to do my best to do a good job. It's great to be with this team and there's going to be a lot of success," said Parente.
And Brazilian Razia, 20, said being part of the Virgin Racing team for their first season in F1 is a dream opportunity.
"It's so exciting, it's a dream to be a part of a new team," said Razia.
Chief Designer Nick Wirth, former owner of the Simtek F1 team of the mid-1990s, is positive about the team's future and revealed the outfit will not use a windtunnel in the development of their car.
"We are of course delighted to add Virgin Racing to our burgeoning list of blue-chip clients," said Wirth.
"Virgin Racing is an all-new F1 entry and here at Wirth Research we are very proud to be providing the backbone to it with a unique approach to car design and development, part of a process we call 'Development in the Digital Domain'."
Wirth decided to make quick exit from F1 at the end of the 1990s after becoming disillusioned with the rapidly increasing running costs and he is pleased the sport is now heading in a more frugal and cost-effective direction.
"We will continue our philosophy of major investment in cutting edge technologies to carry on innovating," said Wirth.
"The fact that our F1 project is fully on schedule speaks volumes for the motivation and capabilities of our entire workforce.
"We are all looking forward to seeing the car break cover for the first time on track in February.
"F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport technology and working on such an exciting project as the Virgin Racing entry gives Wirth Research a unique opportunity to showcase our engineering talent."