F1 2010 - Virgin VR-01

In February 2009, Richard Branson's Virgin organisation was reported as bidding to buy the former Honda Formula One team. Branson later stated an interest in Formula One, but claimed Formula One needed to develop a more economically efficient and environmentally responsible image. Virgin later sponsored the new Brawn GP for 2009.

The team was formed as Manor Grand Prix as a tie-up between Manor Motorsport and Wirth Research, with Graeme Lowdon as CEO, Manor Motorsport boss John Booth as team principal and former Simtek team owner Nick Wirth as technical director. John Booth said: "I was introduced to Nick back in March 09 when the budget cap concept was introduced, There was going to be 30m pounds TV money, that was going to be the cost of the season and it all sounded like a great idea."

The team was meeting prospective sponsors for 2010 at Silverstone at the 2009 British Grand Prix weekend on the very day that F1 threatened to implode amid commercial acrimony and the threat of breakaway championships. Against that landscape the new teams were very much needed as an insurance policy by F1's power brokers. But, once it was obvious that a breakaway was no more likely than at any other time during the previous 30 years, that was not quite so true. There would be no performance breaks for the newcomers, as promised, and the question was whether or not to continue. They ultimately decided to continue but within the financial framework they had decided on for the old regulations - and could only do that because of Nick Wirth's CFD capability.

With Mercedes-Benz purchasing Brawn at the end of the season, Branson invested in an 80% buyout of Manor Grand Prix, with the team being renamed Virgin Racing.

Virgin Racing were based on a three way partnership between Manor Motorsport, which ran the cars; Wirth Research, which designed them, and Virgin which handled all the commercials. Car preparation and racing operations were run from its headquarters in Dinnington, South Yorkshire; Wirth Research designed, developed and built the VR-01 from its base in Bicester, before announcing a relocation to new, larger premises in Banbury, Oxfordshire in July 2010.

Virgin Racing had the lowest operating budget of all the teams in 2010 of £40m. Branson said, "Money's not everything. They are determined to prove that via engineering prowess, great drivers and a great affinity with the public they can do well."