Virgin Racing VR-01 Cosworth

[bjpower]

Wow, I'm sure that I have the same tea-tray at home that they used to build this wing!

Seriously, that is a very basic wing (in F1 terms!), kind of impressive that they do as well as they do with design like that. Well done VR!

they haven't learned how to make curves with auto-cad yet

[zgred]

[ringo]

The car is steadily improving and seems to be faster than the lotus since Silverstone.
Glock is really doing a good job.
What's new on the car that gave it this big step in improvement?

[wesley123]

The whole rear end seems new and di grassi runs a new front wing

[Phillyred]

It's just an overall aero and packaging improvement bit by bit.. They are learning..

[godlameroso]

It could be now that they have sort of got their reliability problems in check, they can finally start developing the car. After all you need a solid foundation to build on.

[ringo]

Glock's perfect lap, his best sector times put together, is 0.1s away from the STR of algaushari.

18 17 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1′19.273
19 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1′19.387

he is also half a second ahead of Truli for best laps. This is a huge improvemnt.
All i see differnt on the car is the new wing and diffuser. I guess it's down to the good design of the body since most of virgin's problems in the begining had to do with reliability, tyres, suspension and wings.
Now that the have the diffuser and front wing sorted out, they can focus on setting up and getting more from the tyres. The sleek but basic design also has an aerodynamic edge on the chunky lotus.

Starting to like this car now, it looks good, but didn't have the speed, now it's getting better and goes as fast as it looks. Hopefully it can surpass one of the back of the mid pack teams near the end of the season.

[ESPImperium]

The team didnt get many parts out for this weekend, simply due to a problem with the transport taking the parts to Hockenhiem.

The VR/01 is a well designed base design, better than the Lotus that was more relyable from the start. The VR/01 is developing more now, it will have more parts on the car for Hungary. Seemingly one of the things Virgin has had ironed out is Hydrolics, Xtrac have been developing their system, getting it up to date for current F1 demands. The only Cosworth team not needing the new Xtrac systems is Williams as they have their own gearbox department.

I can see this car being a good stepping stone for Virgin, next years will be alot better as they will have better corrolation for Nick Wirths CFD to read world data. Personally id still like to see them have some wind-tunnel data, but thats just prefrence. When Wirth Research switch to their new facility in the summer break, they will have all the CFD engineers under one roof with the simulators (they have 2) and their seven post rigs (They will have 2 as well) as well, so this will mean everything will be alot better for the team as well.

Virgin are finally going to have a better future, one that means they will be firmly tagged onto the back of the midfield next year i feel, their yard stick is Lotus, and if Lotus take a leap next year and go straight into the middle of the pack, Virgin will neet to make a simmilar leap as well, thats if their weak link of fully CFD can make a simmilar leap.

[marcush.]

I expected the wirth to start better into the year but now it looks like they fulfil
the promise at least speedwise..
Glock is extremely pissed now that the car shows speed ...the y still have a lot of mechanical issues.. He could not go out again because of a brake hydraulic leak in the rear circuit ...he stated in RTL interview ..and he said he was fed up with those things easy to rectify but occurring on every weekend ... I think he starts to put pressure on now to raise the quality of work in Virgin.
With Wirth acting as a conslutant for process implementation and QM it is surprising they do not get a handle on this ...

btw ...they managed to be quicker in race than in Qualy...and they were at 103.1%of the racepace of the quickest car... =D> =D> and only 1.8% slower than the quickest williams ...and that has taken quite a step forward recently...

[zgred]

[raymondu999]

Interesting. Looks like they've done a Lotus and scrapped their original FW design and completely redid it. Cascade looks like the one on Renault/FI/Mercedes/RB, and it seems to be the correct way to go as a lot of teams are already converging on this design (As all F1 designs tend to converge anyways) but the way that has been abandoned by Lotus, and also left alone by the likes of Ferrari/McLaren

[King Six]

I never really thought of their original Front Wing's as designs anyway, they always seemed like placeholders until they got a real FW on. Nobody actually took the initial wings seriously did they? Just look at the old Virgin wing, lol

I always thought the best route for these teams is to copy a big team's FW and watch the seconds tick off. Considering how awful they were initially, the wings of the new teams.

[raymondu999]

It's not quite that simple though. That front wing, since last year, has to condition the flow to suit the rest of the chassis, as there are no more flipups/conditioners allowed on the bodywork (like the Ferrari canards/McLaren horns/dumbo wings). The front wing has to be designed to work with the body for maximum effect.

[King Six]

It's not quite that simple though. That front wing, since last year, has to condition the flow to suit the rest of the chassis, as there are no more flipups/conditioners allowed on the bodywork (like the Ferrari canards/McLaren horns/dumbo wings). The front wing has to be designed to work with the body for maximum effect.

Yeah I know, but still you'd have to assume that anything similar to the top teams would have been better than what they were using. Considering just how far they are off the pace, everything else is just about finding those extra tenths when these guys need to find seconds.

[marcush.]

It's not quite that simple though. That front wing, since last year, has to condition the flow to suit the rest of the chassis, as there are no more flipups/conditioners allowed on the bodywork (like the Ferrari canards/McLaren horns/dumbo wings). The front wing has to be designed to work with the body for maximum effect.

I think that statement is a myth .We have seen again and again teams changing their front wings extremely without changing everything behind it.
Of course the front wing is one very important piece of kit determining what is going on behind it .But put on a very good wing in the right position and the rest will fall into place....eg ..you will have an easier time to optimise the bits behind it..