Revamped Virgin ready for Barcelona

And they have vowed to come back faster and stronger, starting this weekend in Barcelona.

So far, Virgin have managed to take the chequered flag just once in eight drivers—Lucas Di Grassi taking 14th in Malaysia. The main disappointment has been Timo Glock’s successive non-finishes.

Technical Director, Nick Wirth, said: “Since Shanghai, we have conducted an extensive investigation into the failures that halted the obvious progress the team has been making since its debut.

“That investigation has highlighted a number of issues that are currently being addressed by the race team, Wirth Research and our key suppliers and our continuing aim is to put an end to the reliability issues that have dominated our Grand Prix debut.

“Having worked tirelessly to prepare the new car for the race, including its successful rehomologation, it is a bitter pill to swallow that we are unable to complete the second car due to the “volcanic delays”. Running two fundamentally different specification cars at Barcelona will certainly challenge the team, but as the reliability fixes apply to both specifications, we’ll keep our heads down and focus solely on getting both cars to the chequered flag.”

After being delayed in returning from Chna, work has continued at Dinnington to revamp the cars, especially the small fuel calls.

But the delay caused by the volcanic problems means only one revamped car will be ready for Barcelona, which will be driven by Glock.