Virgin Racing emerged from a partnership between Manor Motorsport, which ran the car, and Wirth Research, which designed and built it. Former Simtek owner Nick Wirth served as technical director, Graeme Lowdon as CEO, and John Booth as team principal. The team had originally entered under the Manor Grand Prix name. At the end of the 2009 season, Richard Branson's Virgin organisation acquired an 80% stake in the outfit, and it was rebranded as Virgin Racing. Virgin handled commercial operations while Wirth Research continued to design the cars from its base in Bicester, with race operations conducted from Dinnington in South Yorkshire. The team ran on the lowest operating budget of any constructor in the 2010 field, reported at £40 million.
Nick Wirth's defining technical decision was to use only CFD for aerodynamic development, forgoing wind tunnel testing entirely. Team principal John Booth argued at the time that wind tunnels would soon become obsolete as CFD capability advanced. Later in-season upgrades appeared to support the method's validity, though the car's pace placed it in competition primarily with the other new teams — Lotus Racing and Hispania Racing — rather than the established midfield.
One significant problem emerged before the season began: it was reported that the VR-01's fuel tank was too small to complete a full Grand Prix distance at competitive fuel consumption rates. The team sought FIA permission to modify the chassis with a longer underbody to accommodate a larger tank. The revised chassis was not ready until the Spanish Grand Prix.
Timo Glock, previously at Toyota, was announced as the team's lead driver in November 2009. Lucas di Grassi, a long-serving GP2 competitor from Brazil, was named alongside him. It was reported that di Grassi had brought approximately £5 million in sponsorship to the team. During the second half of the season, Belgian driver Jerome d'Ambrosio joined as a reserve and drove di Grassi's car in the first Singapore practice session. Di Grassi was replaced by d'Ambrosio for 2011.
The early rounds were characterised by hydraulic failures, a problem that had surfaced during pre-season testing and recurred throughout the opening races. At the Bahrain Grand Prix, di Grassi retired on lap three with hydraulic failure; Glock followed on lap 17 after losing third and fifth gears.
The team recorded its first finish at the Malaysian Grand Prix, where di Grassi completed the race in 14th place after overtaking both Lotus Racing and Hispania rivals. Virgin scored their first double finish in Spain after the revised longer chassis arrived, with Glock and di Grassi both crossing the line in 18th and 19th.
Glock's best individual result was 12th at the Japanese Grand Prix. A points finish was denied to the team at the Korean Grand Prix when Glock was running a strong 12th in difficult wet conditions, a potential result that would have placed Virgin ahead of Hispania in the Constructors' standings, before being hit by Sebastien Buemi's car on lap 31.
At the season's end, Hispania finished ahead of Virgin in the Constructors' Championship despite operating a measurably slower car, an outcome explained by Virgin's greater number of early-race retirements and the lost 12th-place result in Korea. Glock and di Grassi managed only two 14th-place finishes between them across the full season, compared to three such finishes for the Hispania drivers.
The VR-01's status as the first F1 car developed without a wind tunnel made it a point of reference in discussions about the future of aerodynamic development. While it was never competitive with the established teams, the car demonstrated that CFD-only design could produce a machine that was at least functional at Grand Prix level, and its later development updates showed measurable on-circuit progress. The team would continue into subsequent seasons under a series of ownership and name changes.