what will happen next?

Sad too say, i've just been searching for news on jv, and he says his chances of finding a drive are slim. Guess we knew that but i kinda hoped the old tiger had a trick up his sleeve.

Yep, me too

I have a feeling that once all the seats are filled and JV isn't in one of them, he will criticise the teams and swear or something.

It's hard to feel too much sympathy for anyone that doesn't get a drive because of salary demands. The list of things I wouldn't do to drive an unpaid season in F1 is a very, very short one.

If it is a short one, then way you don't wrote it here?

Kovalainen (on an interview at formula1.com) is saying that Lotus will only joing the test grid on the 3rd group session.

what's the "drunk" smiley about?

No, he'll just write a song about it.

If he swears it'd be fair enough, they're hiring new lakeys that are bound to make plenty of mistakes, he's a damn good driver on old tyres, especially with slicks back, it'll suit the old dogs bigtime. Cant believe no teams had any faith in him.

Or Nigel, or Nelson Sr!

Virgin rebrands Cosworth engines as Marussia:

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns22026.html

Weird...

I don't think so. It struck me as odd that Virgin had Marussia as a partner despite the fact that they were running Cosworth engines, so I kind of expected something like this.

Yeah, better than if the engine was re-branded after their other partner Carbon Green, I guess... now that would've been more like a sex change, a shame for a virgin, uninformed decisions and stuff..

edit: I just checked their website and learned that the Marussia road cars have Cosworth 3.5l V6s... nice touch! I'm secretly thankful they didn't dish out more money and re-branded ALL the Cosworth F1 engines though..

That's ridiculous. I can understand PLAYLIFE renaming Supertec engines as they are not an engine manufacturer but want more exposure. I can understand Mercedes rebaging Ilmor engines as they financed them and the Ilmor engines were only for McLaren and specifically developed to for the Mercedes brand. But I can't understand Marussia renaming run of the mill Cosworths that four other teams are using. Like we are to believe Marussia is the engine manufacturer!? That's cheap...

To be honest, I don't think many of them would be overly-interested. It costs an extra one and a half million pounds to do it, which is apparently how much Marussia paid Virgin. So Virgin are really getting the re-branding for free. But as for the other teams, what would they rename to? Lotus are the only ones who could reasonably do it and go from Lotus-Cosworth to Lotus-Proton, or maybe just Lotus, but the first would only serve to cheapen the team and the second might step on a few peoples' toes. After all, they've said they don't want to be pretenders and take from the history of the Lotus name in motorsports, but add to it instead. USF1 don't really have any close affiliation with anyone who could reasonably be a candidate for the re-branding, and nor do Williams. As for Campos, I reckon they should rename the engine the Meta, because Gazprom (/PDVSA) Campos Meta1-Cosworth is quite possible the most inane and odd-sounding name in the sixty years of Formula 1; Gazprom Campos-Meta sounds far better. But if times are as hard on the Campos farm as we've been led to believe, the one and a half million pounds for rebranding rights is probably a luxury.


How is the Marussia situation any different to PLAYLIFE? They want more exposure, and they've apparently bankrolled the whole thing. It doesn't cost Virgin a cent, but Cosworth get their money. Marussia get their exposure as a fledgling supercar manufacturer, and everyone wins. I'd say Cosworth might have reservations about it if they were only supplying Virgin, but there's four other teams carrying Cosworths this season. It's not like they're going to lose a fortune in coverage for it.

2 Minor updates to Virgin Racing:

Virgin Racing
Virgin VR-01 – Marussia CA2010
Team Principal: John Booth ; Technical Director: Nick Wirth
24. Timo Glock (2-year deal with an option for a 3rd)
25. Lucas Di Grassi (how long a deal?)

I don't think the Marussia will be branded as the Marussia CA2010. That's a Cosworth designation, after all.

Judging from the FIA's entry list, both Campos' cars and their engines could have been named 'Campos Dallara', resulting in a Campos Dallara/Campos Dallara combination. That's much like Ferrari, which is, strictly speaking, a Ferrari/Ferrari, of course, hence the appearance of just 'Campos Dallara' on that list.

I'm not at all sure about this, though.


Me neither, but I have to put in something, don't I?

What's the engine designation for the road car? That's a Cosworth unit, too, I understand.

Edit: according to the Russian wikipedia, the engines are currently a Renault-Nissan unit, but a Cosworth replacement is allegedly announced.

I just found these over at F1 Fanatic and thought this was as good a place as any to show them. They were made by the user Jezson, and I'm sure he won't mind if I parade his works here under his name for you all to admire. They're a pair of Toro Rosso mock-ups, one for Red Bull Sugarfree and one for Repsol YPF, and you can find them here. Someone give this man a job designing liveries!


I don't know. I can read a little Russian, but it's too advanced for me.

Ferrari=>Petronas?

Ferrari=>Acer?

I can't read cyrrilic either, but Google Translate helps...

Google ranslate helps, but I like showing off.

Senna could switch to Toro Rosso for 2010 - reports
http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp...54914&FS=F1

Wow. Those mock up Repsol and Sugarfree liverys are great. Much better than the lame copy of Red Bull racing liverys that Toro rosso normally run. That light blue one would be fantastic.

I've learnt to be weary of GMM 'news', but there is some logic in this.

However:

And:

Unlikely. The Brazilian press tend to believe everything they hear about Brazilian drivers. Since Campos' situation is nowhere enar as dire as it has been made out to be, Senna will probably stay.

" The cars will not be officially named Virgin-Marussia", says Joe Saward.

I've posted it at the Campos thread but it has a place here too:

[ GrandePremio ]

Goodbye BMW and Toyota, hello Marussia. Still it will good for this company to have its name in Formula One, like Lada in WTCC (but a little different).

Allow me to quote myself (emphasis added):

Yeah, but Acer, Petronas nor PLAYLIFE were car manufacturers. Marussia is. Wouldn't you find it odd if Chevrolet rebranded one of the cosworth units...

The difference that I'm pointing out and you are not getting is that if the team is successful nobody will think that "hey, that Acer/Petronas/PLAYLIFE sure makes good engines/cars". However, they will think that "hey, that Marussia sure makes good engines/cars".

Not at all. They actually did so during the 2003 (and subsequent seasons?) in the IndyCar Series.

I think car manifacturers rebadge engines (or even whole cars) quite customarily. Vauxhall Astra, for example.

And what about the so called "Ford" engines that have claimed 176 Grand Prix victories?

Marussia is russian name (like Mary). So "Virgin Marussia"... It sounds amazing))

You mean... 'Virgin Mary'?

By the way, Autosport says Virgin will joing the 2nd group test on the 10th of February at Jerez and that the car will run for the first time on a Silverstone shakedown in between the 3rd and the 5th of February.

Damn those lousy transliterations! Kirill25 made me realize Marussia is supposed to mean Marusya, diminutive of Mariya.

Yep, why not Bogoroditsa Racing?

Weren't the Ford-Cosworth engines in Minardi renamed as Fondmetal-Ford in 2000 and European in 2001?

With all of the management changes and now this delay in testing it sounds like Virgin are having some serious issues and it could be likely they never make it off the ground.

Jesus, you people will take any excuse to doubt a team, won't you? Virgin made one change, and while it might have been a major change, it was just one. Singular. Not the plural you're making it out to be.

Plus they're based in Yorkshire! They might as well be in Burkina Faso.

I only really lurked in the Nostalgia Forum last year, was this place as depressingly cynical in years previous when we got new teams?

We've only had two bona fide new teams since 2000 if I am correct, Toyota in 2002 and Super Aguri in 2006. Toyota were always going to make it and with Super Aguri they openly admitted they'd start the season with a modified 2002 Arrows.

At least then they had the decency to rebrand all of the engines. Not just two cars.

Any more news on Villeneuve?

Nope, nothing.

True. Although I reckon that was due to a different engine concept in IndyCar, the fact that, IIRC, Chevrolet ordered the engines from Cosworth prior to badging them, compared to F1's team-by-team engine concept, as well as the Cosworth deals already being in place prior to the now refuted engine badging.