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Nick Wirth no longer Technical Director of Virgin Racing - Virgin Racing have split from Wirth and his research company

Published by Christine

Nick Wirth no longer Technical Director of Virgin Racing
Credit: Virgin Racing
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Hello and welcome to F1Minute - Nick Wirth leaves Virgin Racing.

Earlier this year, Virgin Racing confirmed they had invited Pat Symonds - former technical chief of Renault - to complete a review of their operation in order to start improving and getting results. Although banned from the sport until 2013, Symonds was consulting with the team on their technical departments, and we may have seen the first casualty of his review.

Technical Director, Nick Wirth, has left Virgin Racing, as confirmed by a statement from CEO of the team, Andy Webb. He said: “The decision has been taken that the team will take greater control of its own destiny. Accordingly, having consulted with our existing technical partner during the course of the past few weeks, we have been obliged to terminate our relationship with them.”

The team was strongly linked with Wirth’s own research and development company, so they will likely now be looking for their own facilities, and perhaps a new technical partner. We already know that the team are ready to move on from their CFD-only strategy, and that wind tunnels will likely play a bigger part in their future.