Marussia Virgin is taking a new direction
Nick Wirth officially leaves his role as technical director of Marussia Virgin today, and speculation inevitably turns to what the team will do next.
Clearly there’s an alternative strategy in place, although the team is being a little coy thus far as to what form it might take. The key thing is that the change of direction has been made just about in time to allow the team to create a new car without Wirth for 2012.
As reported here last night, Wirth’s company WRT only does a limited amount of manufacturing. Most parts are made to WRT designs by third parties, and then delivered to the race team. And since the team owns the IP, drawings, patterns etc it can simply now deal direct with those suppliers, or seek out new ones.
Crucially Virgin also has access to the CFD computing power that was provided by sponsor CSC and installed at Wirth a few months ago, but which belongs to the team.
Thus if the team gathers together a group of freelance design staff – in much the same way as HRT has done – it can get a design office up and running and set those guys to work on the 2012 car. Consultant Pat Symonds no doubt has enough contacts to make that happen very quickly.
It’s pretty clear that the team will also use a wind tunnel, and given the terms of the RRA, it won’t then be able to use the full CFD power it now has at its disposal, since there has to be a trade-off.
That’s only a temporary solution of course, and longer term the team will need a proper base – and bearing in mind who is paying the bills, presumably one that doubles as an R&D facility for Marussia’s road cars. Leafield has been mentioned, but sources say that the former home of Arrows/Super Aguri is not the current plan.
Meanwhile team CEO Andy Webb hinted at where the team is going in a statement last night. Reproduced here in full, it fails to mention the name ‘Wirth’ at any stage:
“In November 2010, sports car manufacturer Marussia Motors acquired a significant shareholding in the Marussia Virgin Racing F1 Team, securing the Team’s future and underlining the marque’s long-term commitment to Formula One.
“Over the past six months, Marussia and the Board of Directors have undertaken a comprehensive review in order to ensure that Marussia Virgin Racing has the strongest platform, team of people and resources in place to achieve its long-term ambitions.
“Integral to this review has been an evaluation of the technical direction of Marussia Virgin Racing. Marussia’s goal remains to be in a position to be able to challenge for a podium finish at the inaugural Russian Grand Prix in Sochi 2014. With this in mind, it is readily apparent that the Team must take major steps in order to accelerate its rate of improvement.
“Consequently, the decision has been taken that the Team will take greater control of its own destiny. Accordingly, having consulted fully with our existing technical partner during the course of the past few weeks, we have been obliged to terminate our relationship with them.
“Looking ahead, we will now be pursuing an alternative technical path and look forward to announcing our plans in more detail over the coming weeks. Most importantly, I believe that the steps we are taking in terms of our technical leadership and operational excellence will provide us with the robust foundation required to go on and achieve our performance objectives in the years ahead. These are bold but positive steps that will enable us to move forward with confidence.
“At this stage I would like to underline our continued commitment to a cost-efficient commercial model. We maintain our absolute belief in CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) as a technology, especially since it continues to become more cost-effective with every year. Naturally, we will continue to use every means at our disposal to improve the aerodynamics of our car with immediate effect.
“At this time of year it is commonplace for all teams to start looking ahead to the following racing year, whilst continuing to develop the existing car for the remaining races of the current season. The upgrades we have planned for the summer races are now passing from the design phase to the production stage and more and more of our focus is turning to 2012.
“In light of our long-term plans we will continue to aggressively pursue this strategy, but as next year’s regulations contain few changes we hope that some of the development work aimed at the MVR-03 may also find its way onto the current car.”
Adam Cooper F1 
Have you heard anything about this supposed tie-up with McLaren? Meant to be a copy of the deal they have with Force India, but possibly with a drive for Gary Paffett included too.
The muchn needed emphasis on improving reliability and compliance with 2011 specifications married to a limited budget no doubt contributed to the MVR-02s lackluster performance as much as Nick Wirth’s CFD raison d’etre. Never the less Wirth is ultimately responsible for the final product, and so recieves his walking papers. Of the people available, Pat Symonds is the best they could have. Formula One needs people with vision like Nick Wirth as well, it is the way that the sport will improve and grow; I’m sure one day we will see F-1 cars developed solely via CFD, and Wirth’s trust in it will be vindicated.