Virgin Racing Announces Technical Partnership With McLaren

Marussia Virgin Racing has concluded a long-term Technical Partnership with McLaren Applied Technologies which will see the team gaining access to McLaren facilities, knowledge and capabilities. The deal includes McLaren’s test rigs and driver-in-the-loop simulator, supply chain experience and CFD and CAE techniques including race strategy tools.

This couldn’t come a moment sooner, as the Anglo-Russian team as been struggling doe to its decision to cut costs wherever possible. Last year, the team skipped wind-tunnel testing in favor of designing its car entirely using computers, and it hasn’t exactly done wonders for them.

"When we undertook our detailed review of the team in the first half of 2011, it was clear that our bold ambitions for the future would need to be matched with some equally bold steps towards achieving them. I am delighted that in a relatively short space of time we are now in the fantastic position of being able to make these two very important announcements, which will enable us to make some dramatic strides forward with immediate effect,” commented Andy Webb, Chief Executive Officer of Marussia Virgin Racing.

"McLaren Applied Technologies is delighted to have entered into a Technical Partnership with Marussia Virgin Racing. Under the terms of this Technical Partnership, Marussia Virgin Racing will be able to access McLaren's wind tunnel, simulator, rigs, and fitness and wellbeing programmes. These properties are state-of-the-art, and we confidently therefore expect Marussia Virgin Racing to derive significant benefits from them,” added Martin Whitmarsh, Chief Executive Officer of McLaren Group.