In February 2009, Richard Branson's Virgin organisation was reportedly bidding for the former Honda Racing F1 Team. Branson expressed interest in Formula One but stated the sport needed to develop a more economically efficient and environmentally responsible image. Virgin later sponsored the new Brawn GP for the 2009 season.
The team was initially formed as Manor Grand Prix, a partnership between Manor Motorsport and Wirth Research. Alex Tai was appointed team principal, Graeme Lowdon as director of racing, John Booth as sporting director, and Nick Wirth as technical director. Formation was spurred by a proposed £30 million budget cap concept that would have made the cost of competition viable. Once it became clear the budget cap and promised performance breaks for newcomers would not materialise, the team continued based solely on Nick Wirth's computational fluid dynamics capability.
With Mercedes-Benz purchasing Brawn GP at the end of 2009, Branson invested in an 80% buyout of Manor Grand Prix, renaming the team Virgin Racing. Shortly after, Tai left and Booth became team principal with Lowdon as CEO. Virgin Racing operated as a three-way partnership: Manor Motorsport ran the cars from headquarters in Dinnington, South Yorkshire; Wirth Research designed and built the cars from Bicester, Oxfordshire; and Virgin handled commercial operations. The team's operating budget for 2010 was £40 million, the lowest of any team on the grid.
The Virgin VR-01, launched on 3 February 2010, was the first Formula One car to be developed exclusively using computational fluid dynamics, with no wind tunnel testing. Technical director Nick Wirth believed wind tunnels would become redundant. The car passed mandatory FIA crash tests and completed its first track run at Silverstone on 4 February in the hands of Timo Glock.
Pre-season testing revealed persistent hydraulic problems, and the VR-01 also had a fuel tank too small for the car to finish a race at full-speed fuel consumption. For the Australian Grand Prix, the FIA granted permission to modify the chassis with a larger tank; the revised chassis with a longer underbody was introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Timo Glock, formerly of Toyota, was the team's lead driver. He was partnered by Brazilian GP2 Series regular Lucas di Grassi, who reportedly brought £5 million in sponsorship. In the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Glock qualified an impressive 19th, pipping Jarno Trulli in the other Lotus as the highest-placed driver of the new teams, though both Virgins retired in the race.
Di Grassi scored the team's first ever Formula One finish at the Malaysian Grand Prix, completing the race in 14th on fuel-conservation mode. Despite the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull disrupting European air travel before the Spanish Grand Prix — allowing only one of the new long-chassis cars to reach Barcelona — Virgin scored their first double finish at Spain, though both cars were last of the finishers.
At the Japanese Grand Prix, di Grassi out-qualified Glock but had a heavy accident at the 130R entrance on the way to the grid. Glock finished a strong 14th ahead of both Hispania cars. At the Korean Grand Prix, Glock was heading for 12th — which would have moved Virgin above Hispania in the constructors' standings — when Sébastien Buemi ran into the side of his car on lap 31, ending the race. This result proved decisive: Hispania finished ahead of Virgin in the constructors' championship despite having a slower car. In November 2010, Bernie Ecclestone described the three new teams as "an embarrassment."
On 11 November 2010, Marussia Motors acquired a controlling stake in the team, guaranteeing its future until 2014. The team announced it would race with a Russian licence in 2011, becoming the second Russian team in Formula One after Midland. The team also announced its CFD facility would be upgraded to become the third largest in the world.
The Marussia Virgin Racing MVR-02 followed the VR-01's CFD-only design philosophy. Chief designer Wirth decided against KERS, judging the gains insufficient to justify the development cost. The car was designed at the same length as the original VR-01 chassis but with a full-size fuel tank. Its nose air intake was designed to resemble the Marussia B2 road car. Jérôme d'Ambrosio replaced di Grassi alongside Glock for 2011, having previously driven for the team in Friday practice sessions at selected 2010 events.
In Germany, Glock commented on team radio that they were making it "difficult for him," later claiming the remark was made in a joking manner. He announced the following day that he would be staying with the team until 2014. Glock's best result of the season was 15th at the Italian Grand Prix.
In June 2011, the team announced the end of its partnership with Wirth Research, following an internal review led by former Renault engineering director Pat Symonds that found the CFD-only approach had not yielded expected results. The team entered a new partnership with McLaren Applied Technologies for the 2012 season, gaining access to McLaren's technical facilities, simulators and wind tunnel. Symonds was retained as a technical consultant, though he could not be employed directly until his ban expired over his role in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix race-fixing affair.
In November 2011, Virgin applied to the Formula One commission to formally change the constructor name from Virgin to Marussia for 2012. Permission was granted and ratified by the FIA World Motor Sport Council. On 31 December 2011, Marussia Virgin Racing announced it was now the Marussia F1 Team. The company retained its base in Dinnington, South Yorkshire and established a new technical base in Banbury, Oxfordshire. Virgin announced its logos would continue to feature on the 2012 car.
Key commercial partners included tyre supplier Bridgestone, IT services firm UST Global, environmental technology company Carbon Green, information technology firm CSC, foreign exchange traders FxPro, clothing company Kappa, and Russian sports car manufacturer Marussia. On 14 December 2009, Lloyds Banking Group invested £10 million in the team. On 16 December 2009, Tony Fernandes, owner of Air Asia and the Lotus team, accepted a challenge from Branson: the losing team's boss would work on the winner's airline dressed as a stewardess. Fernandes won and Branson ultimately honoured the bet on 13 May 2013.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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