LONDON: Richard Branson launched his Virgin Racing Formula One team on Tuesday with a plan to make money where others have burned through billions.
“We haven’t put a lot of money in, we’ve put our brand in,” the British entrepreneur told reporters after the team presented Brazilian rookie Lucas di Grassi and Germany’s Timo Glock as their driver lineup.
“On the back of the brand, the team are managing to get a lot of sponsors. Our involvement is the naming of the team and some money.” The team first secured their place on the 2010 grid as Manor Grand Prix when slots were made available to new entrants earlier in the year. Branson’s Virgin Group sponsored champions Brawn this year.
“We had an incredible season, we loved being the David versus Goliath,” said Branson of a team who emerged from the ashes of departed Honda to win both titles and then be taken over by Mercedes. “Brawn were very much the David. At the end of the season they became the Goliath,” said Branson. “So we searched around for another great team and we think we have come up with some brilliant engineers and drivers.
“They are very much another David, we’ll see how it goes.”
Virgin, billed as “a new team for a new era,” will have a car designed by former Simtek owner Nick Wirth using only computational fluid dynamics rather than wind tunnel testing.
Some, such as Williams co-founder Patrick Head, have publicly questioned the wisdom of relying exclusively on computer models but Wirth said he had no doubts. Manor founder John Booth will be the sporting director while Alex Tai, formerly director of special projects for the Virgin Group, will be team principal.
Etienne de Villiers, the former president of the men’s ATP tennis tour, will be non-executive chairman.
Tai said cost-cutting measures and budget caps had changed the Formula One landscape.
“It is possible to have a Formula One team that actually makes money,” he said.
“With this limiting to the budgets, we find ourselves on a level playing field. That is the opportunity for us to actually have a profitable Formula One team.”
