Virgin present the new MVR-02 in London!!

7/2/11,

The new Virgin Racing F1 2011 car was presented at the headquarters of BBC Virgin Racing!! The MVR-02 has several changes compared to the first model of the company with more characteristic the lower front tip and the more 'folded' back. 

 

In addition the letter M in MVR name comes from the cooperation with Marussia, the Russian car brand, which is slightly different  painting of the car. 

The new car was designed by the team of Nick Wirth entirely in CFD and Virgin hope that 2011 will solve the major reliability problems encountered last year .. In Valencia the team had an intermediate model for testing, while the new car will make its debut in Jerez on Thursday.

“We faced a very steep learning curve and experienced some tough lessons, which we have applied to our design programme for 2011,” explained Wirth. “We have addressed every single issue that troubled us last year, but in our own unique digital way.

"In terms of sheer CFD throughput, the number of configurations that our new processes have allowed us to test for the MVR-02 is a giant step forward from the VR-01, and we are looking forward to further improvements here as we finally begin to benefit from the new Supercomputer that our partners CSC have provided for 2011.

"I am confident that we have made real progress with the MVR-02, producing a car with considerably more aerodynamic efficiency than the VR-01 despite the regulation changes, and having made significant gains in terms of overall quality. It provides a good basis for development over the course of the season, and I'm very sure we'll be able to keep up the impressive rate of aero development that we've had since the beginning of the MVR-02 project.”

Virgin have a new title sponsor for 2011 in the shape of Russian sportscar makers Marussia Motors (the ‘M’ in MVR-02). Marussia have also taken a significant shareholding in the team. There is also change on the driver front, with Belgian rookie Jerome d’Ambrosio replacing Lucas di Grassi as team mate to the experienced Timo Glock.The MVR-02 is expected to make its track debut at Jerez in Spain later this week, the team having run an interim version of last year’s car at last week’s Valencia test session.