Virgin Racing team principal John Booth is confident the team’s decision to focus on reliability rather than pure performance will benefit them in the long run.
He conceded that the outfit will struggle in the opening few races but, for a team in its second year, this would be a small price to pay for a successful second half.
“We fully expect the first few races to be challenging in terms of outright pace, but I’m comfortable that prioritising reliability and strategy will help our big picture and we’ll be in a much better place for the rest of the season,” he explained.
He went onto compare the team at present to the team a year ago, saying it’s like ‘night and day’, alluding to the fact the outfit has developed its understanding of the sport and is better placed to challenge the teams ahead.
“Whilst it’s impossible to predict how any of the teams will fare once we all take to the track next Friday in the first real barometer of competitive performance, what I do know is this – as a racing operation we’re like night and day compared with 12 months ago.
“Last year we pushed too soon on car performance and it cost us in reliability terms as a result.”
