Virgin ready for British Grand Prix

VIRGIN’S sights are already focused on next season—but that doesn’t mean they’ve written off this year.

They head into tomorrow's plum British Grand Prix knowing they face a struggled to catch nearest rivals Lotus and with HRT starting to cling to their coat tails.

But even though there’s still plenty to be learned from the remaining rounds this term, team boss John Booth has admitted that 2012 will be the year when Virgin really do try to crank up the pace.

“Our reliability is as good as anyone else’s now. Ferrari are probably out there on their own, but it’s amazing how many cars actually finish these days. All 24 came home in Valencia and that’s incredible.

“It is going to be hard to close the gap during the remainder of the year. We are looking at developing the car and we will have had it in the win tunnel by the time we get to Singapore.

“But the idea is now to develop the 2012 car. We have to put the majority of our efforts into that.”