It is becoming increasingly clear that the Manor Grand Prix entry that was granted in the summer will transform in the weeks ahead into a team called Virgin F1.
We hear that Virgin executive Alex Tai is being lined up to be the team principal. The announcement has been kept quiet up to now because of Virgin’s deal with Brawn GP. There was talk back at the start of the year of Virgin buying a shareholding in Brawn but the partners in the team were not keen on the price and so decided to let Branson go and do his own thing somewhere else. He was thus steered into Manor.
Virgin is, in effect, a venture capital organisation that uses the Virgin brand. Many Virgin-branded companies are run under licence, notably the Virgin Radio stations, Virgin Mobile and Virgin Megastores. Some Virgin companies have been sold but keep the name, such as Virgin Records, which is owned by EMI and Virgin Books, which is 90% owned by Random House. Virgin Atlantic is 49% owned by Singapore Airlines and Virgin Trains is 49% owned by the Stagecoach Group. Even the company’s space programme Virgin Galactic is 32% owned by Abu Dhabi’s Aabar investment group.
Tai was a pilot with the Royal Air Force and then flew executive jets before joining Virgin Atlantic in 1995. Two years later he was appointed to head Branson’s special projects division and was involved in such piloting the chase plane for Branson’s Virgin Global Challenger round-the-world balloon flight. He is also chief operating officer of Virgin Galactic. He intends to be the pilot of the first commercial space flight.
It is anticipated that Manor’s John Booth will take on the role of Sporting Director in the team.
The cars are being built for the team by Nick Wirth’s Wirth Research in Bicester and the latest suggestion is that one of the likely drivers is BMW Sauber test driver Christian Klien who has been trying to get back into an F1 race drive since 2007 when he was dropped by Red Bull Racing to make way for Mark Webber. Prior to that he competed in 48 Grands Prix, his best result being sixth place in his first season of F1 with Jaguar Racing in 2004. He stayed with the team when it became Red Bull Racing. In 2007 he was Honda’s test driver but he then moved to BMW Sauber at the start of 2008.
Another name that has been mentioned is that of Anthony Davidson, the former Honda F1 test driver for many years, who is now working as a commentator on BBC Radio.
There has also been talk that Adam Carroll, the A1 Grand Prix champion with Team Ireland this year, is also being considered for a drive.
The Virgin brand is hard to define these days because of the many different businesses in which it is involved. The days of being the rebel brand are long gone and the appeal to youth from the days of Virgin Records has now broadened. It may be that the F1 team is an attempt to give the brand a sharper focus, based on technology and high performance.
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Joe,
slightly off topic, but since its been brought up in this post in some form i raise this question. Do you know what is the status of A1 Gran Prix as a series? You are one of the few journalists who seems to believe their is life and racing outside F1 and any details you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
From what I hear there is not much happening on that front. The cars are said to have been impounded by a transportation company and the main A1GP operations company has been shut down. There is talk of another being started in Portugal. Some of the teams are breaking up although most exist to do other things, such as GP2. It remains to be seen whether or not it will happen again…
VIRGIN F1 does sound like a strange brand in motorsports to me.
Joe, an excellent summary of the Virgin brand and its involvement in F1.
As you say, it’s difficult to see exactly what Virgin are trying to achieve in F1, especially as the myriad Virgin businesses are merely diverse vehicles, all painted in the same brand colours.
Virgin history is littered with ventures that didn’t generate the Branson required income. Who remembers Virgin cosmetics, now VIE at home. And when was the last time you saw a can of Virgin Cola?
The brief flirtation with Brawn obviously foundered when Branson wanted to pay peanuts AND have more control in the team. I can well understand Ross wanting to have a clear demarcation between the sporting operation and a plaything large enough to satisfy Richard Branson’s ego. And we saw a lot of that at the beginning of this season.
Somehow I don’t think Virgin are likely to be a long term F1 presence. And I think unless Manor are unfeasibly successful in their first three seasons, Virgin/Branson will lose interest…
Of course, Virgin have a dilemma. They want to be in F1 for the kudos, and possibly for the reasons you suggest Joe, but at the same time they want to be at the front.
They struck gold with Brawn this year, but don’t want to spend the money to be a title sponsor for regular front runners like McLaren or Ferrari.
Despite my misgivings, I wish Virgin and Manor every success in their new F1 adventure. It will be interesting to see how the 2010 season pans out…