Virgin Racing have been dealt a massive blow after Auto Motor und Sport reported the fuel cell contained within the VR-01 isn’t adequate enough to complete a full race distance.
According to the German website, the cars wouldn’t have made the end of the Bahrain GP, if the car’s were reliable enough to finish.
With the new regulations prohibiting chassis modifications, thanks to the homologation process designed to reduce cost, teams cannot change the design.
However, in this case, the FIA has given Virgin special dispensation and have allowed the team to make modifications to allow a larger fuel cell. It’s estimated the tank falls short by around 10-15 litres.
Despite the allowed changes, the new chassis won’t be ready until the Spanish GP, meaning Virgin will either retire with a reliability issue, crash or run out of fuel in the next three rounds of the championship in Australia, Malaysia and China.
Any aerodynamical modifications have now been put on hold, as they will also have to be changed come the Spanish GP to account for the larger chassis.
