Timo Glock (20th, 21st)

“A difficult day for me. We had a few problems in the first session with a fuel leak, which cost us pretty much the whole session – I only got two runs at the end. In the second session we had to change the set-up quite a lot, which took up nearly half of the practice. I completed two productive tests but unfortunately the front wing broke over the kerb, so I had to go back to the old one and run the soft tyre towards the end of the session which cost us a lot of performance compared to our new spec. It hasn’t been the smooth day we hoped for but I’m confident that tomorrow will bring better things.”

Lucas di Grassi (21st, 20th)

“We’ve had a very productive day today. We’ve done a lot of work with the new upgrades and the car was behaving as expected throughout the sessions. I’m very happy that we are getting closer to Lotus and we are ready to go for tomorrow. I am confident we can make another step forward for qualifying.”

Nick Wirth, Technical Director, Virgin Racing

“A fascinating and encouraging day. We did a series of aero tests today that have proved conclusively that we’ve made the expected step forwards in downforce which is consistent with our digital aero process. In fact the step is so significant that it caused a number of set-up issues that we’re trying to address. Lucas had a steady and productive day, with the set-up direction evolving as he’d found on the simulators this week, which is great news. Timo had a tricky Friday, starting with a fuel leak caused by a pinched O-ring delaying his start, and a lengthy set-up change taking up some valuable track time later on. Unfortunately he had an off prior to trying the option tyres which broke his new front wing and our spare wing hadn’t quite made it to the track in time for him to use. Nevertheless we have the spare now and we’ll look to improve the set-up again overnight.”

Virgin Racing have completed their two-day shakedown today, with Timo Glock kicking things up a notch from yesterday’s exploratory laps, completing 42 laps of the 1.8km Stowe circuit during the morning.

Lucas di Grassi then took over in the afternoon recording his first 36 laps as an F1 driver, before saying:

“It feels good. It feels like home! I’m really happy and our first impressions of the car are very positive. It’s amazing what the team has achieved in such a short space of time. I think we have a strong car and a great team to get things started in Jerez. It was important for me to learn as much as possible here so I can start to put some real mileage on the car next week.”

Lucas di Grassi

Nick Wirth, Virgin Racing’s Technical Director, said:

“I am delighted that we have successfully shaken down the VR-01. To achieve 100km of running out of the box is a great achievement with only a few minor issues along the way. We have acquired some good information to feed straight back into design for the development of new parts, which we may even be testing next week. All in all this is a very pleasing conclusion to a memorable week for Virgin Racing.”

Nick Wirth

Team Principal John Booth paid due credit to his brand new race team:

“Our shakedown provided our very first opportunity to work together as a trackside operation and it couldn’t have gone any better. The way the team has come together to achieve such a successful shakedown has been commendable. I’m very proud of what we have achieved and we’re looking forward to taking our place alongside the other F1 teams in the pitlane next week.”

John Booth

Virgin Racing will join up with the other teams at the Jerez test which starts on Wednesday.

Gallery

Images (C) Virgin Racing

Virgin Racing today made its driver announcement in London, where it was confirmed that Manor have teamed up with Richard Branson’s Virgin brand, and that Lucas di Grassi will drive alongside Timo Glock at the team. di Grassi said:

“I could never imagine a F1 debut as perfect as this one. Entering F1 with John Booth and his crew, the same people with whom I won the 2005 Macau F3 race – one of the greatest successes in my career – is really beyond perfection I should say. And I believe I am ready for F1.

“I have worked a lot during these years to get here and I believe it happened just in time. I always had great expectations about the day I would enter F1, and I should thanks everyone who was with me all these years, and I shall say John and his team are among those very people I consider helped me to get there much before we signed the F1 contract.

“Being here with them makes more sense to me than to be with a veteran organisation. We will debut together, and that detail makes for a special bond too. I guess all that will make me stronger and more confident as I will be among old friends. I am ready to work twenty four seven and I am sure I will be able to contribute with the team efforts in every stage of our evolution in 2010.”

It was also revealed that Lucas di Grassi’s fellow GP2 graduates Alvaro Parente and Luis Razia will take on the role of test drivers with the team.

Virgin Racing driver Timo Glock is certain seven-times F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher will make a return to the sport.

The former Toyota driver, now partnered alongside Lucas Di Grassi at Virgin said:

“There’s still a lot of speculation, but in the end he is a crazy race driver, and he wants to come back to racing. It’s not enough for him to just do go-kart races, or go to the Race of Champions at the end of the year.

“The flame is still there, it’s still burning within him, and it will be great for Formula One if he comes back.
“For me, my personal feeling, it is quite obvious he is coming back.

“For Formula One and the fans it would be a big boost, a seven-time world champion coming back after three years out. It would be a mega highlight, and to drive for Mercedes, you would have a German driver in a German car.”

And Glock said he would relish the chance to race alongside his countryman, but realises it would be difficult.

“To beat Michael would be a good year for us, but we have to concentrate on ourselves, and not look at what others are doing.”

Virgin Racing have revealed Portuguese drive Alvaro Parente will be their reserve driver, and they have also made their new website live today.

To visit the the Virgin Racing website, click HERE

Today it was announced that Lotus F1 Racing would run ex Toyota driver Jarno Trulli and ex Mclaren man Heikki Kovalainen for 2010. Both have won only one Grand Prix.

This seems to be a fairly good pairing for Lotus; age and experience alongside youth and potential. The only team which will have a more experienced line up is Williams although they will be fielding a rookie.

Jarno is a master over one lap, he really excels at qualifying. This suggests that he can squeeze the extra tenths out of the car which will be vital to any new team. He tends to suffer on race day and seems to be a fragile driver.  However, his experience should also be an aid at the developing the car and he has worked very well alongside Mike Gascoyne before when they were back at Renault and at Toyota.

Heikki on the other hand, will only be entering his fourth season in F1. This should be an edge over the new teams with rookie signings (Senna at Campos, di Grassi probably at Virgin Racing) as he has a lot of mileage under his belt. He showed a good bit of talent back in 2007 but the step up to Mclaren seems to be one too soon. The situation and Heikki’s mentality probably took another big hit with Lewis completely dominating him. At a new team he’ll have to contend with Jarno who is inching closer to retirement and so will probably find things much easier.

He showed some ballsy moves at times, most notably at Suzuka this year with a splendid move on Fisichella after leaving the pits. The Finn seems to have the potential and Lotus has thrown him a lifeline-if he wants to stay in F1 he will have to deliver this time.

This line up gives Lotus a good starting point and time to shop around for a young, talented Malaysian to take over the cockpit when the time is right. Another interesting point to note is that Jarno’s now  ex –teammate Glock will be racing for Virgin, a team that Lotus seems determined to beat.

The rumours are that Trulli has an option to leave at the end of each year of a reported three year contract so we’ll see how that develops.

We reported earlier that Lotus team boss Tony Fernandes had announced by his Twitter account that he was to announce the drivers he had signed for the team’s debut season on Monday.

However, it seems he may as well call off the announcement as according to an AP source Jarno Trulli has been signed for the team, with strong rumours linking Lucas di Grassi with the new Malaysian-backed team. di Grassi has confirmed earlier this week that he will be in F1 next season with one of the four new teams.

A person familiar with Jarno Trulli told The Associated Press that then 35-year-old Italian has signed for the team.

Trulli was left without a drive when Toyota left F1 at the end of the 2009 season. He is a veteran of 219 races, collecting 246.5 career points but just one win since his first race in 1997. He has driven for Jordan, Renault and Toyota.

Some would say it was about time, but today Lucas di Grassi has confirmed that he will be driving in F1 next year with one of the four new teams, be it; Virgin, USF1, Lotus or Campos. di Grassi said;

“It will be in one of the four new teams entering the sport. It’s a dream come true, of course. It’s fantastic. I am well-prepared, I was reserve and test driver at Renault for two years. My goal is to enter F1 to stay, in a solid way, to get results and create a future.”

The 25 year-old di Grassi performed impressively in this year’s GP2 series with the Racing Engineering team – he finished 3rd overall taking 1 race win. At the start of the month di Grassi was present at the young drivers test in Jerez, driving for the Renault team.

Ferrari F1 driver Felipe Massa went close to winning in his own karting event recently – Desafio Internacional das Estrelas, including winning one of the two races, but he finished in second to Michael Schumacher, who won the event overall.

However Massa has just won the 500 Miles of Granja Viana event near Sao Paulo in Brazil, alongside team mates Lucas di Grassi, and Stock Car Lights driver Julio Campos, after just under 11 hours of racing. He dedicated his win to his new born baby Felipinho.

Massa said;

“Together with the victory gained in Florianopolis last week this was a very important goal for me after I had dreamt about getting back onto the track for a long time. I want to dedicate this victory to my son, it’s my way to say how much I love him.”

Finishing in second place was a team featuring former Toyota F1 star Ricardo Zonta, while Rubens Barrichello‘s team came third.

I apologise for being so late, but only now have I had the time to dig out the photos and upload them to our gallery.

Anyway, onward and upward and Michael Schumacher has won Felipe Massa‘s kart race – Desafio Internacional das Estrelas or International Challenge of the Stars, which has been held every year since 2005, with Michael Schumacher winning the event twice in the 5 years.

This time around, the event was attended by big names; Michael Schumacher, Felipe Massa, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Rubens Barrichello and Lucas di Grassi.

Schumacher won this years race after winning Race 1, with Felipe Massa taking Race 2.

Race 1

Race 2

Final Classification

Driver Points Race 1 Race 2
1 Michael Schumacher 45 25 20
2 Felipe Massa 41 16 25
3 Vitor Meira 27 11 16
4 Vitantonio Liuzzi 25 20 5
5 Rubens Barrichello 23 10 13
6 Tony Kanaan 19 9 10
7 Lucas Di Grassi 13 13 0
8 Marcos Gomes 11 0 11
9 Max Wilson 9 0 9
10 Antonio Pizzonia 8 8 0
10 Christian Fittipaldi 8 0 8
12 Nelsinho Piquet 7 7 0
12 Enrique Bernoldi 7 3 4
12 Raphael Mattos 7 0 7
15 Duda Pamplona 6 6 0
15 Bia Figueiredo 6 0 6
17 Ricardo Zonta 5 5 0
18 Tarso Marques 4 4 0
18 João Paulo Oliveira 4 1 3
20 Mario Moraes 2 2 0
20 Xandinho Negrão 2 0 2
22 Luciano Burti 1 0 1
23 Popó Bueno 0 0 0
23 Felipe Giaffone 0 0 0
23 Eduardo Berlanda 0 0 0

Images from the event are in our gallery.

The new Mercedes team have today announced their two drivers for the Young Drivers Test at Jerez, Spain which will take place later this month – Mike Conway and Marcus Ericsson.

Mike Conway, the 26 year old from Kent, England has previously won the Formula Renault and British F3 titles. This year he has competed in the IndyCar series, with his only podium being a third place. He finished 17th in the drivers standings.

The 19 year old Swede Marcus Ericsonn won the Formula BMW title in 2007 and just this year he has triumphed and won the Japanese F3 title.

The full list of young drivers heading for Jerez so far is:

BMW Sauber:
Alexander Rossi
Esteban Gutierrez

Mercedes:
Mike Conway
Marcus Ericsson

Ferrari:
Jules Bianchi
Daniel Zampieri
Marco Zipoli
Pablo Sanchez Lopez

Force India:
Paul di Resta
JR Hildebrand

McLaren:
TBC

Red Bull Racing:
Daniel Ricciardo

Renault:
Bertrand Baguette
Lucas di Grassi

Toro Rosso:
Brendon Hartley
Mirko Bortolotti

Williams:
Andy Soucek
Nico Hulkenberg