The team was originally established as Manor Grand Prix, founded by Manor Motorsport boss John Booth, Wirth Research's Nick Wirth as technical director, and Graeme Lowdon as director of racing. The venture was granted FIA approval in June 2009, alongside HRT (then Campos Meta) and Lotus Racing. At the end of 2009, Richard Branson's Virgin organisation purchased an 80% stake in Manor Grand Prix, leading to the rename as Virgin Racing. Booth became team principal; Lowdon took the role of CEO.
Virgin Racing operated from a base in Dinnington, South Yorkshire for car preparation and race operations, while Wirth Research designed and constructed the cars from its facility in Bicester, Oxfordshire, later relocating to Banbury. The team's operating budget for 2010 was £40 million, the lowest of any team on the grid.
The Virgin VR-01 was notable as the first Formula One car developed exclusively using computational fluid dynamics, with no wind tunnel testing. Technical director Nick Wirth made the decision as a cost-saving measure and a philosophical commitment to CFD-led design. Former Toyota driver Timo Glock was confirmed as lead driver, with Brazilian GP2 regular Lucas di Grassi alongside him.
The team arrived at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix having completed substantial testing, but the car proved immediately slow. Pre-season testing had revealed a hydraulic problem that required repeated redesigns. An early revelation was that the VR-01's fuel tank was too small to complete a race at full fuel consumption; the FIA granted permission for a longer chassis to be introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix. Despite these difficulties, di Grassi scored the team's first classified finish in Malaysia in 14th place.
The season's most significant incident came at the Korean Grand Prix, where Glock was running 12th — a result that would have promoted Virgin above HRT in the standings — before a collision with Sébastien Buemi's car forced his retirement. Virgin ultimately finished below HRT in the Constructors' Championship despite having the generally faster car, a result of unreliability and racing incidents.
In November 2010, Marussia Motors acquired a controlling stake in the team, guaranteeing its future until 2014 and introducing a Russian licence for 2011.
The Virgin MVR-02 continued the exclusive CFD approach. Jérôme d'Ambrosio replaced Lucas di Grassi alongside Timo Glock. The car improved on its predecessor in several areas — the hydraulics and gearbox were revised, and the fuel tank issue resolved — but remained at the back of the grid.
In June 2011, the team ended its relationship with Wirth Research following an internal review led by former Renault engineering director Pat Symonds, which concluded that the CFD-only approach had not produced the expected aerodynamic results. A new partnership with McLaren Applied Technologies was announced for the development of the 2012 car. The MVR-02 competed for the remainder of the season under the existing design.
Hispania Racing, which had generally run a slower car than Virgin, finished ahead of the team in the 2011 Constructors' Championship. Glock announced he would stay with the team through 2014.
In November 2011, the team applied to change its constructor name from Virgin to Marussia. The FIA granted approval, and on 31 December 2011 the team announced it was now the Marussia F1 Team. Virgin retained a commercial presence on the 2012 car as a sponsor. The team continued as Marussia F1 Team through 2014, ultimately entering administration during the 2014 season following a serious accident involving driver Jules Bianchi.
Virgin Racing's most distinctive technical characteristic was its wind-tunnel-free development philosophy. Nick Wirth argued that CFD would supersede wind tunnels and that the cost savings justified the approach. The VR-01 was the first Formula One car to reach competition built entirely without physical tunnel work — an experiment that ultimately did not produce competitive results, but which demonstrated how seriously the new generation of teams took cost reduction as a design parameter. The Marussia acquisition introduced Russian branding to a British-based team, continuing a pattern established by Midland F1 and the brief Russian licence registered to that team in 2006.