Richard Branson is pleased with his teams start to the 2010 season. This year has been the total opposite to his first year involved in F1 in 2009 when he backed the Brawn GP team which took a 1-2 in their maiden race, and went on to win the championship.
Now, the billionaire has backed a much smaller team who will be fighting at the back for most of the year, but Branson is proud of the ‘respectable’ start they made in Bahrain.
“I think it is a very, very respectable start,” he told Autosport. “Bahrain was a long track and they were not far off teams that have been around for years. We are talking about 1.5 seconds on a big long track – so I think it is a tremendous start.
“I am very proud of everybody, and they have worked enormously hard. It is tremendous.”
The Virgin mogul is in it for the long-haul and is confident the team can improve throughout 2010, before moving up the grid in the future.
“The baby was born in Bahrain, and babies have to develop into children and then adults. We hope it is going to be a quicker process than that.” He said.
Branson linked his start-up to that of Enzo Ferrari who also struggled to set up Ferrari, now one of the most loved and successful team in the sport’s history.
“When Enzo Ferrari started Ferrari, he had to battle to get into the racing – he spent two years trying to get his foot in the door.
“He struggled like any new boy on the block. So everybody has to start somewhere. I don’t think there is any new team that has come in and won on their debut – remember Brawn was Honda with a couple of hundred million dollars!”
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