Virgin's New Chassis Development Troubled by Volcanic Ash Effects

The volcanic ash lingering above Europe is a reason for worry to all Formula One teams that want to head back to the old continent following their Chinese adventure the past weekend, but some may suffer a great deal from the air-traveling ban imposed on several airports worldwide.

One of those teams is Virgin Racing, who have been on a race against the clock to develop a brand new chassis for the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix, able to incorporate a bigger fuel tank. After the first couple of races in the 2010 season, the Yorkshire-based team found out that the VR-01's fuel tank is unable to host a quantity of fuel necessary to finish the race, so they began developing a new car design.

According to several sources in the UK, all this extra effort cost the team some 1 million pounds sterling, all of which have been supported by Wirth Research (the company that built the chassis in the first place).

Everything was going according to plan until the volcanic eruption in Iceland, which now makes it impossible for the team to send their two single-seaters back to their Yorkshire base in due time for the latest repairs. All F1 freight is now ”trapped” on the Shanghai airport – until the air restriction will be lifted – and it's yet uncertain when it will make it to the team's base in the UK.

It is believed Virgin Racing has only one VR-01 chassis available at Yorkshire, so they will most likely get all the redesigning work on that for the upcoming period of time. Meaning one of the team's drivers Timo Glock or Lucas di Grassi will have to compete in Spain with the old car, which is still unable to finish a race.