Manor (formerly Marussia)

Virgin

FIA Entry: Marussia Virgin Racing
Car 24: Timo Glock
Car 25: Jerome d’Ambrosio
Engine: Cosworth V8
Team Principal: John Booth
Technical Director: Nick Wirth
Race Engineer Car 24: Mark Hutchison
Race Engineer Car 25: Dave Greenwood

Stats as of end 2010

First Entered 2010
Races Entered 19
Race Wins 0
Pole Positions 0
Fastest Laps 0
Driver World Championships 0
Constructor World Championships 0

Manor Motorsport

When F3 team Manor Motorsport were given a place on the F1 grid in 2010 they commissioned Wirth Research to build them a car. Brawn sponsor Virgin became title sponsor and Virgin Racing was born

Virgin Racing

With Cosworth engines, Xtrac gearboxes and drivers Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi Virgin Racing embarked on their first F1 season. The VR01 chassis was the first ever F1 designed entirely using CFD, with designer Nick Wirth believing computer simulations were sufficient to not need expensive wind tunnel testing.

Inevitably the team had reliability issues early on and they also discovered the fuel tank on the car wasn't sufficiently large enough to allow the team to complete full race distance. Wirth Research got a dispensation from the FIA to homologate a new chassis and by Spain both cars finished the race.

The team regularly finished races but barely troubled the mid-field. By seasons end the team were placed 12th and last in the Constructors Championship based on a count back of minor placing’s having managed a highest finish of 14th.

2011

Russian carmaker Marussia have taken a controlling interest in the team for 2011 and Belgian Jerome d’Ambrosio replaces Lucas di Grassi. With the VR02 chassis Virgin will be hoping to move further up the grid in 2011.
 
Ford says Formula 1 costs still a turn-off

When a giant corporation like Ford says F1 is too expensive, people better pay attention.

Remember, it was Ford that bankrolled the Cosworth, which led to what I consider the Golden Age of F1. It gave rise to the privateers such as Williams, McLaren and too many others to mention. They could all be assured of a competitive engine so the playing field was level.

Galahad. How did that devalue the competition?
 
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Liberty Media still have to pay of a debt earned by F1 paying out 'future profits' to shareholders for next 5 to 10 years so I doubt much will change to start with.
 
Galahad. How did that devalue the competition?

It didn't, of course. It was the best engine in F1 and moved the sport forward. But teams were free to try other options, as Brabham, Ligier and others did. I'm talking about restricting the amount teams could spend.
 
Ford says Formula 1 costs still a turn-off

When a giant corporation like Ford says F1 is too expensive, people better pay attention.

Remember, it was Ford that bankrolled the Cosworth, which led to what I consider the Golden Age of F1. It gave rise to the privateers such as Williams, McLaren and too many others to mention. They could all be assured of a competitive engine so the playing field was level.

Are you pretending that F1 was NOT a spending war in that period? The big difference was that back then, the budgets were relatively low in an absolute sense. Consequently, a privateer with deep enough pockets got participate in the spending war. However, there certainly was a spending war. Between 1960 and 2000 F1 budgets went up by around 20% per year, every year for 40 years. This spending war is an integral part of what made F1 great at the time.

Obviously, this was not sustainable. It is amazing that the explosive exponential growth managed to last for 40 years!
 
Here's an interesting little graphic.

f1_budgets_history21.png


and then plotted on a log scale

f1_budgets_history_log1.png


From here: How money predicts success in Formula 1

Perhaps Ford should have jumped in in 2011?
 
I think we are going slightly off topic .. sad for Manor Marussia... Liberty Media may want to try and copy the Indy Car model where there is some form of cost control to make racing fairly even
 
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