Youngster gets chance with Virgin

VIRGIN Racing are working hard behind the screnes ahead of Sunday's next round of the F1 Championship in Barcelona - and giving their young gun drivers the chance to get behind the wheel.

The Dinnington team’s objective has been to conduct detailed evaluation work with the updated aero package introduced in Turkey last weekend, with a view to extracting maximum performance from the car from the Spanish Grand Prix.

The test also provided the team with an opportunity to continue it’s commitment to the pool of emerging talent in its Young Driver Programme, with 20 year old Brit Adrian Quaife-Hobbs making his debut run in an F1 car.

The team enjoyed a solid day of testing with the MVR-02 running reliably throughout. Adrian completed 146km, enabling the team to gather plenty of data with which to further develop the package.

Said Virgin Team Principal John Booth: "It really is extremely rewarding to put these young guys in the car and see how they respond to such an opportunity.

"He acclimatised well to the car and developed a strong rapport with the engineers and mechanics, so he should feel pleased with his first day’s work in a Formula One car.

"Overall it has been a very productive test for us, with the Idiada proving ground providing us with excellent conditions with which to test the updated package that we introduced at the last race.

"As we might have expected in its debut outing, we experienced a few teething problems in Istanbul and this test has provided us with the opportunity to understand more of the potential of the developments. We’re looking forward to seeing further signs of progress in Spain this weekend.”