Virgin Racing launch VR-01 (Pictures)
Virgin VR-01
Virgin Racing are the first of the new F1 teams to launch their 2010 car.
See below for more pictures and information about the VR-01.
Designer Nick Wirth has created the VR-01 entirely using Computational Fluid Dynamics computer modelling. This is not a new technology for F1 – but relying on it instead of a wind tunnel to create a new car is a novel approach.
Wirth believes CFD is the best way for teams to develop F1 cars under F1’s new resource restrictions:
Today is a very proud day for everyone involved with Virgin Racing, however on this occasion, where the car is the star, I want to pay tribute to all the amazing people at Wirth Research who deserve so much of the credit for the VR-01. Putting together an F1 team, assembling an engineering group and designing a new car from scratch is an epic task in the timeframe we have been working to.
I have been fortunate to have worked with the very best designers in F1 and I am well aware of exactly what it takes to be successful in this sport. When you see what the existing teams have achieved using the conventional but proven design approach, it is unsurprising that there is a great deal of scepticism about our all-CFD approach. But we are competing in a sport that is undergoing significant change having come face to face with today’s harsh economic realities. Under resource restriction, convention will become too costly and necessity really will be the mother of invention. I have absolute belief in the digital design process and the opportunity to put the all-CFD approach to the test at the highest level – to demonstrate that this could be the way for the future of F1 – is very, very exciting.
Nick Wirth
The team, originally named Manor Motorsport, are using Cosworth’s CA2010 V8 engines this year.
Team principal John Booth said:
Not only do we have a great bunch of people at Virgin Racing, we also have a great-looking car. We are delighted with our fantastic new livery which provides a fitting integration of our racing brand with our important commercial partnerships. All in all, we have a lot to look forward to as we progress towards our racing debut in Bahrain next month.
John Booth
He also explained why the car was not ready in time for the test at Valencia this week:
The first stage in our on-track evaluation programme is our two-day shakedown at Silverstone on Thursday and Friday this week, where we will conduct systematic testing and confidence-building of all car parts and on-car systems. It was always intended that we would miss the first all-team test in Valencia this week and very early on we targeted the second Jerez test in two weeks’ time for our public testing debut. It is a testament to our methodical approach and the sheer hard work of the team that we are heading to Spain a week earlier than planned to take part in the first Jerez test next week.
John Booth
Virgin chairman Sir Richard Branson added:
I’m sure we will be measured by how fast the car is on the track in Jerez next week, but I hope that doesn’t overshadow the far bigger achievement of pulling an entire racing team together and taking a brave step that defies convention. In many ways this is an exploration, but given the absolute self-belief we have seen, I can’t help but feel very excited about what we can go on to achieve in the years ahead.
For now though I’m looking forward to seeing the VR-01 on track in testing in the coming weeks as we prepare for Virgin Racing’s very first grand prix.
Richard Branson
Virgin VR-01 pictures
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- Virgin VR-01
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- Virgin VR-01
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- Virgin VR-01
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- Virgin VR-01
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- Virgin VR-01
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- Virgin VR-01
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- Virgin VR-01
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- Virgin VR-01
VR-01 dimensions
Length: 5,500mm
Height: 950mm
Width: 1,800mm
Wheelbase: 3,200mm
More VR-01 technical specifications
2010 F1 car launches
- Renault R30 launched (Pictures)
- BMW Sauber C29 launched (Pictures)
- McLaren and Ferrari’s 2010 cars side-by-side (Pictures)
- Compare the new McLaren MP4-25 with last year’s car (Pictures)
- McLaren MP4-25 launch pictures
- 2010 Ferrari F10 and 2009 Ferrari F60 side-by-side (Pictures)
- Ferrari 2010 F1 car pictures
Image (C) Virgin Racing
Poor old Virgin. I can only get better from here.
Sorry, *it* can only get better from here.
Dammit, why do I always have to make spelling mistakes that change the meaning of what I post when I’m trying to say something profound?
Welcome to my world.
lol
But come on, “poor old Virgin”? Are you being ironic?
@PM
Its your subconscious mind surfacing, I hope you feel better soon LOL
lol
Hahah oh dude critical error
Does anyone else think the nose looks kind of like the that of the 2001 Jordan? It is a very different looking car to the other 2010-spec cars; it will be interesting to see if any of the other new teams look similar. That is a cool livery by the way!
http://files.conceptcarz.com/img/Jordan/jodran_ej11_manu-01_007.jpg
Yup, and it also somewhat reminds me of the 2001 Minardi:
http://www.grandprix.com/jpeg/phc/pbel01/alonso2-lg.jpg
mmmmm I can see where you’re coming from but I don’t think so. I reckon that Minardi inspired the MP4-18 nose.
Heh, no
The mp4-18 nose went on a long curve, whereas the VR-01 and Minardi noses are straight flat.
Where is Madonna? Thought they’d invited her to sing her famous song.
“Like a Virgin
Driven for the very first time!”
that engine will blow their chances if they have chances
Looking forward to the livery on this one, hoping for a jet-black base colour.
That’s what Lucas di Grassi said it was going to be.
awesome, I’m pleased they didnt go for another red/white ’safe bet’ livery
car looks fantasitic, and livery is very nice too!
Noticed a real RBR feel to the rear of the car with the body fading to very low, also raised edges on side of nose.
Car looks clean and simple…I think it should go ok.
Now I am just hanging out for Red Bull to release their 2010 challenger. From what I understand it won’t be a carbon copy of what the toro rosso looks like either. yer there will be bits that interchange but RBR have a bullet up there sleeves….!
This car look brilliant!
In fact, I dont think we’ve seem a fugly car yet this season!
Virtual disaster!
The fact that we can’t see the car that was supposed to be ready 43 minutes ago is strangley indicative of all the new teams this year.
As well as it;s “innovative novel” design process.
Lets see how CFD holds itself to the good old windtunnel. Im more looking forward to that and how the car looks then the PR blabla that they already pulled of the closet out now.
If Fernando Alonso was driving for Virgin, would it matter if they could get their stream up 0.6 seconds faster?
Honestly, it never gets old
No, but you will, if you call customer services
Virgin Racing is waiting for the proper time to launch in order not to clash with Goddess of Virginity… ye holy one
come on come on come on… launch it!
I like the use of “in excess of” for fuel tank size and engine weight…
If it appears, i think it may look somewhat like the Midland of 2006. With the black/red/white livery.
Common no more people pics… show the damn car already.
God some people are a) impatient and b) intolerant.
From Lucas di Grassi on Twitter (translated):
I’m liking him already.
He seems cool doesn’t he!?!
Yeah di Grassi sounds like a nice guy.
Yes, he is. I’m a brazilian and I’m following his career. I’ve not been a fan of any brazilian pilot since Senna. I’m a Kimi fan. As he’s not driving F1 this year, I’m definately going to support Lucas, he’s a very cool guy, realy good driver and deserves a chance like that.
I love the looks of the car and livery by the way.
I am really curious to know why most Brazilians refer to “Driver” as “Pilot” ? Even the google translation of some of the Brazilian F1 site does the same.
You would have thought they’d have tested all the feeds etc before it all went tits up?!
Whtsto say they didn’t? I used to do the soundcheck for the auditorium at my school, and we went through the procedure a dozen times ahead of graduation to make sure it worked. It did. But when zero hour came around … well, it didn’t work the one time we needed it to.
These things happen. You just have to be patient.
Insert Virgin joke about not being ready here.
It’ll be really interesting to see how this team goes. More so than any other, I’m really interested to see how good CFD etc is at predicting accurately on track performance. I also like the driver pairing!
Virgin takes her time before first night out.
Keeps thousands waiting before offering a peep.
Yeah I know, very weak.
hi first post . not very good with links ,on youtube scuadraF1 has some images of what it thinks vr01 will look like
I tell you what, if they are slow on the track you know that the jokes are going to come back to this! lol
I like the driver pairing too – especially Glock. But, my god, what a disaster. They don’t even have a single person providing Twitter updates or a TweetPic. There’s no excuse for the lack of photos online . . . somewhere!
They can create a car by CFD, but they can’t set up a simple live-stream… I hope they did a better job at the car then .
Hey, spare a thought: Virgin aren’t the only website having problems. Autosport has gone unresponsive for the past fifteen minutes as well.
As well as the Dutch part of GPUpdate.net earlier this week.
I see a conspiracy here..
You’re thinking Max is behind it?
Thankfully F1 Fanatic’s new server is holding up! Hope none of you are getting the dreaded Error 500s any more…
So far so good Keith. Havent had that in about a week.
I only started getting them in the last week O.o
Just as you posted that Keith, I had an ‘unable to connect to database’ error, probably just a glitch though as I haven’t had one before
I am, sometimes it gets as much as 5 or 6 pushes of the refresh button to get the site working.
Oh, and the “Error establishing a database connection” appears quite often
getting that also!
Perhaps Virgin Media are throttling them for excessive bandwidth use!
Livery is red and black and described as “distinctive”:
http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/sport/4887137.Virgin_Racing_launch_F1_car/
Of course its distinctive.
Toyota described they’re livery as “distinctive”
Yeah, but this isn’t Virgin describing it.
And in a way, Toyota was distinctive. You could pick them out as they went past. I challenge you to be able to do that between the Mercedes and McLaren, or between the Red Bull and Toro Rosso.
They’re not going to post pictures and ruin the big fanfare of the lauch as nobody will watch the launch.
Nobody’s watching the launch as it is. And going by the article I linked to above, it’s already over. It’s just the footage that they’re struggling with.
They have HAD the launch!!
Launch is finished! The pictures are on the website, but no car ones
Where on the website?
No, those pictures are from the team launch in december, but not yet the car launch.
Those where pictures of the announcement last year december.
whoops, just realised i’m wrong! They are from the launch in december
why do i have the feeling you’ve gone to the ‘team launch’ – aka, the announcement of the team in Nov/Dec. that’s all i can find on the website
And yet pictures of the car are probably the only thing most people want to see at the moment.
Yeah, but Virgin don’t want them leaking and spoiling the surprise.
The the Virgin twiiter page they say they want to get the launch on, it wont be live im presuming they dont want media leeking photos untill after it has been shown
If an F1 car is launched and no one sees it, does it exist? Or something similar…
You have got that one from Jon Noble’s Twitter page.
He should sue you for violating his copyright
shhhhh!
Just got in and thought i’d missed it but sounds like I haven’t. Is this the correct website I should be looking at?….http://www.virginracing.com/
Thats the correct page. Just wait untill the vid and pics are uploaded there.
yes Autosport went virtual too
10 more minutes I’ll give them.
I’m starting to stop caring about them anymore….
same here… i’ve waited for an hour…
Like they would care
?
How terrific the launch is will have nothing to do with how fast the car is. McLaren showed that last year. Not a great start I agree but get over it!
I’m just tired and i want to sleep. i’ve got to go to cricket in the morning. please be swift richard.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81228
They really should have just joined the rest of them on monday. then any photographer there could have uploaded photos and there would be far fewer frustrated fans. i’m kinda hoping there car is a flop now so next year they’ll use the right resources and get testing earlier!!!
On a completely different matter, I’ve just noticed Schumacher is using a carbon fibre BLACK crash helmet.
New design on the horizon????
No, just new types of helmets by Schuberth.
No, Massa and Kubica were using them yesterday. It seems to be a new model of helmet from Schuberth, and they’re looking for feedback on it.
I noticed RK using it yesterday. I didnt even realise he used Schuberth.
He doesn’t – but they asked him to test it, anyway. Don’t know why.
maybe in response to massa hungary?
Kubica and Massa had them ass well. Kubica testing some new Bell-helmet type and Schumacher is testing a new type from Schubert.
Bell have a wicked looking carbon fibre helmet too, they provide it unpainted so you can see the weave and everything. Looks mad. All the Bell F1 drivers use it, but obviously they all paint it and ruin the effect
Calm down chaps. Honestly, people always seem to think the world owes them these days. The team have worked hard on this, not you, they’ll show it when they are ready.
Just enjoy it when it arrives and relax.
Agreed. I’ve pulled a few comments from here because frankly we don’t need the bickering.
Sorry about that. It’s just that that attitude of “Give me what I want right now or else” just rubs me the wrong way. And I’m argumentative.
I’ll remember to bite my tongue in the future
Maybe its an invisible car. Very advanced.
I think I saw that in a James Bond film once.
It would certainly be aerodynamic.
It seems that Di Grassi is quiet on his Twitterpage now.
I’m still looking forward to them. I think their livery will be stunning. Their car isn’t going to be as slow as their launch
these things happen though with technology like this site sued to be slow with traffic, facebook always breaks, the Ferrari stream wasn’t brilliant. It’s just one of those things. I’m sure they aren’t just sitting down drinking tea and reading the paper. They’ll be as frustrated by this as many fans are, if not more so as this is meant to be their big moment afterall. The day they’ve been planning for ages.
What a waste of time! Ive been waiting for ages…why didnt they just slap a few on twitter!? Going to loose interest of people soon!
Are they planning on racing the car entirely in the “digital realm”?
Autosport promising pictures in mere moments.
There it is!
FINALLY!!!
thank you Keith!
I really like the look of the car. Maybe slightly too much red for me but definately my favourite livery so far I think.
yay photo!!!!!!!!
Why do the cars keep getting released in the green striped tyres, they looks horrible. Why are the even green anyway?
…Oh yeah because painting something green suddenly makes it save the planet and environmentally friendly.
Oooooh. Spyker orange!
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/2284ddd3.jpg
That … is … ridiculous.
Ridiculously AWESOME, that is!
Now there is a nice looking car shape and livery! That nose I think is my new favourite. The faint background design (is it the Manor rose?) looks very smart.
Agreed. Great looking car, one of the best looking so far.
Nose similar to that of the 2001 Jordan anyone else?
I agree looks absolutely stunning. One of the best cars on the grid.
That nose is completely different to every thing else. Looks like an Indy Car!
I have to say, it looks very well.
Good luck to them.
Wow, and there it is! Great work Keith!
Maybe they have done this on purpose? Great way to get everyone talking about it hey?
Worth the wait, that looks fantastic
ferrari/redbull design i detect
I was thinking more Mercedes – look at the wheels and rear-wing…
Merc are the only other team (so far) to have that cut-out quadrant at the back of the rear-wing.
So… they’ve just stole the Midland livery from 2006…
Looks good
I was hoping for more black than red. But it does look good!
Any shots of the front wing? There seems to be a red pattern I think?