Virgin Racing Releases Details of Strategic Partnership
The Marussia Virgin Racing story turned a page on Monday when the team announced a new partnership with McLaren Applied Technologies. A relative newcomer, Virgin has yet to score its first championship point, but this latest news, which includes a revamped design strategy, may give Virgin the boost it needs to become a serious contender on the Formula One racing circuit.
As part of a new long-term technical partnership with McLaren Applied Technologies, Virgin Racing will share McLaren's facilities, staff and expertise. The agreement includes access to test rigs and driver-in-the-loop simulator, supply chain experience, software-based design tools — and a wind tunnel.
While the team has expressed a continuing commitment to CFD as a technology, it will use all available strategies to achieve the kind of technical progress that will win races. With access to the McLaren wind tunnel, the aerodynamics of Virgin's Formula One racing cars will now be honed with a combination of computer-design techniques and real-world testing.
On Monday Virgin also announced that it had acquired the Formula One business of former technical partner Wirth Racing Technologies along with its technical center in Banbury, Oxfordshire, UK. Virgin parted ways with WRT and technical director and Nick Wirth earlier this year, at least partly due to a lack of satisfaction with the results of Wirth's pure-CFD strategy. The racing team will make use of the Banbury facility for the next two years, while it plans for a move to a larger facility capable of supporting all the team's activities under one roof.
