This is the new computational fluid dynamics designed MVR-02 from Virgin Racing. The team launched the 2011 racer in an event at the BBC Television Centre in London today (February 7th).
During the first official testing session at Valencia last week, Virgin Racing ran an interim car to give itself extra development time to work on the new design. The new MVR-02 will make its track debut when testing resumes at Jerez this week.
The MVR-02 features a slightly lower nose compared to the others but it does feature a tighter packaging in the rear end than its predecessor, the VR-01.
The change from ‘VR’ to ‘MVR’ in the chassis designation reflects the team’s new partnership with Russian sportscar firm Marussia Motors, which has also led to a slightly revised livery for this season.
Virgin Racing finished at the bottom of the constructors’ championship standings in its maiden Formula One season, with early-season reliability issues costing it crucial ground in the battle against fellow newcomers Lotus and Hispania.
The Nick Wirth-led design team have stuck with the unique CFD approach for the MVR-02, a car they hope will elevate Virgin Racing to a position where it can threaten the established midfield teams for championship points.
As for the driver line-up, Timo Glock will lead the team with Jerome d’Ambrosio promoted to the second seat in place of Lucas di Grassi after impressing in several Friday practice appearances in late-2010 Grands Prix.
Virgin Racing designer Nick Wirth has promised that the new MVR-02 is ‘better in every way’ than its predecessor.
The team took the wraps off its 2011 car in a launch event at BBC Television Centre in London this morning, and Wirth said a substantial step forward was guaranteed with the new design.
“Since the middle of year we worked on process, we calibrated how fast we had to improve and what did we have to work on,” he said.
“We have done a huge amount of development of physics and what we are doing to catch up with everyone.”
He is confident that his team has come up with a very good solution to the revised rear end technical rules, which include the banning of double diffusers.
“The back of car is heavily regulated from last year, and we managed to take this car and not only catch up where we were, but go above it in terms of aero efficiency – in every single way this car is faster and better than last year.”
Virgin remains the only team to totally eschew windtunnel work in favour of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). But while the team finished last in the constructors’ championship in 2010, Wirth is confident that its shortcomings were not due to its CFD approach – and that it has eliminated its weak points for 2011.
“Last year that [CFD] side of the whole equation worked very well,” said Wirth. “We hit the numbers we thought we were going to do, which were a logical progression from our championship-winning sportscar programme.
“What caught us out, and other new teams to some extent, was reliability with hydraulics and gearbox, so that has been a focus for 2011.
“We have a dual track approach, apply what we are good at in aero to the gearbox – so more analysis and development on the oil system in the gearbox than we did in sportscars.
“We ran the new hydraulics of new car in Abu Dhabi and in testing. We are just much better prepared for this season.”
The MVR-02 will not feature KERS this year, with Wirth saying the gains available from the energy recovery device were not large enough to justify spending time on it at this stage in the team’s development.
“KERS is an interesting subject, great and relevant technology, linking to hybrid road cars like the Prius,” said Wirth.
“It is extremely expensive and extremely heavy – it is worth about three tenths of a second. We are after three seconds.
“We don’t want to promise Timo [Glock] we have found three seconds, but we have found a lot. It’s more important to focus on aero.”
Source: Autosport.com
Going into the second season in Formula One, Virgin Racing have set a target to compete against the established teams such as Force India and Toro Rosso. Autosport.com has the story.
Virgin Racing can go into its second Formula 1 season expecting to compete against the more established teams on a more equal footing this year, believes team CEO Graeme Lowdon.
Speaking at the unveiling of MVR-02 in London today, Lowdon explained that with a season of experience under its belt and a significant investment from title sponsor Marussia, Virgin is well placed to challenge teams such as Force India and Toro Rosso.
“We put together a really good team of people and we are no longer a new team now,” Lowdon said. “We’re going into our second season as fully-fledged F1 team, that is our mentality, that is our approach.”
Lowdon added that the team learned lessons from its debut season and says its deal with Marussia will provide the resources to take Virgin forward.
“There were some aspects we didn’t know what to expect, so none of that could be a surprise – it was F1, it was supposed to be difficult,” he said. “It’s not meant to be easy, but the secret of my grey hair is I am a Newcastle United fan and I have an inbuilt optimism. That is what got me through.
“Marussia were there at launch in 2009 and were a sponsor through year. They had good chance to see how we worked, they shared the ups and downs – and there were some downs. After that, they still have the commitment to take significant investment in the team.
“As a new team, there’s no point in trying to come in with the same business model as Ferrari, McLaren or Mercedes – they have been doing it a long time. We needed to take a different approach.”
Timo Glock says Virgin Racing is aiming to score points from the beginning of the season, following the launch of the MVR-02 in London today.
The 28-year-old German admits the team cannot close the gap to the top 10 on pace alone in just one off-season, but says Virgin still has to target scoring early in the year.
“We want to grab points in first races and then work from there,” he said. “We are much more sorted out, more structured, we have one year experience so we should be on a good way.
“But we have to realistic, we were 3-4 seconds off the pace last year and you never catch 3-4 seconds in winter time, so we have to make some improvement and then move up.
“I am hoping for a realistic step. I am happy to do a proper step over the winter with the team together and be strong in first races. When you see back to lots of crashes and technical problems – that is where we struggled last year and that is where we have to be strong.”
Glock added that he is happy to be back with Virgin this season, despite some difficult times last year.
“I just want to be part of it,” he said. “Sure, we had some time especially in the first couple of races where we were walking past each other.
“But it was clear you never come into F1 and you are in top three, if that happens then the rest are doing something wrong. In the end, we are a team and we came out much stronger, and we should be better in the second year.”
Team principal John Booth added that his primary aim is for the team to reach the second stage of qualifying: “Our first target is regular spots in Q2, that’s a good platform to move from. We want to be there as much as possible.”
Source: Autosport.com