Virgin have confirmed that they will be debuting their new chassis in Barcelona but, thanks to the delays created by the Icelandic Volcano, only Timo Glock will be running the updated VR-01.
After discovering that their fuel tank wasn’t large enough to finish a race distance at full pace, the Virgin team with Wirth Research have been working tirelessly to redesign, test and rehomologate the new chassis which will enable to car to carry a larger tank.
“Having worked tirelessly to prepare the new car for the race, including its successful rehomologation, it is a bitter pill to swallow that we are unable to complete the second car due to the ‘volcanic delays’,” Nick Wirth said.
“Running two fundamentally different specification cars at Barcelona will certainly challenge the team, but as the reliability fixes apply to both specifications, we’ll keep our heads down and focus solely on getting both cars to the chequered flag.”
Glock, who will be debuting the new car is looking forward to racing the new chassis after testing it in the simulator.
“I have done some work in the simulator in preparation for this race and we have a good idea of what to expect from the modified chassis, so I’m looking forward to seeing how we shape up when we hit the track in Barcelona this week.”
Meanwhile, Lucas di Grassi is disappointed that he will be running the ‘original’ chassis in Spain, but expects a positive race.
“I’m disappointed that I will be driving the previous specification chassis, as we didn’t have enough time to modify two cars, I hope with all the work we’ve been doing to make our race weekends go more smoothly we can have a positive European debut.”
