Virgin are still aiming to be the best newcomers despite a shaky and unreliable start to the season.
With three new teams competing in 2010, it’s likely the only title one of them could possibly win is that of ‘best newcomer’. That award is something Lotus can lay claim to so far, but Virgin’s John Booth is keen on taking it from them by the end of the season.
Reliability issues have plagued Virgin in the opening four races, hydraulics and gearbox issues have been of big concern, but by far the largest and most embarrassing issue to resolve, is that of the ‘small’ fuel tank.
The team are hoping to use a new chassis to accommodate a larger tank for the next race in Spain.
Whilst these issues are being resolved, Virgin haven’t been able to challenge Lotus, recording just one finish, compared to Lotus’s four. Booth expects Virgin to start challenging the Norfolk based team once the reliability problems are ‘nailed’.
In response to whether or not Virgin can emerge as the best newcomer, Booth replied: “Yes. I think once we get reliability nailed and start looking at performance we can make progress,” he told GrandPrix.com.
“But Lotus is a good outfit, pretty much the race engineering team from Toyota, and obviously Mike Gascoyne’s a bright fellow, so I’m not going to underestimate the challenge.
“I think you have to appreciate the size of the task you are taking on and evaluate targets over three to five years. All I want immediately is for our performance to improve each race weekend.”
