Virgin buys Wirth, joins Mclaren for technical partnership

[marcush.]

Not the whole Wirth Research. WRT was the part of Wirth Research that worked on the F1 project. They need the factory and the staff aswell to keep things running smoothly.

Anyway, a positive sign for the team's future.

Wirth Racing Technology is just part of Wirth Research and a quick check with their website reveals that Wirth Racing Technology ltd is not accessible from their site anymore.

We have heard Wirth has just moved into new premises this winter to get everything Wirth under one roof ...
Wirth was working out parts of the former Reynard premises ,right ? So it seems reasonable the F1 branch of Wirth ..who produced the cars and parts have not yet moved or are moving back into their old home?

btw the CSC deal for computing power was a VirginMarussia deal and it was planned to install this at the new banbury premises.. is it relocated now ?

[Polarbear]

Just to clear up the whole issue - Nick Wirth's company, Wirth Research, was actually divided into 3 companies (WR, WRDigital & WR Technology).

The deal with MVR has seen anyone who worked solely or mainly on the Formula One projects is now being employed by MVR. Anyone who worked on other projects Wirth was involved in, has remained working for Nick Wirth.

As far as buildings are concerned, MVR bought the WRTC in Banbury (Wirth Research Technical Centre), which houses the CSC SuperCluster people have spoken about. Those employees who moved to MVR work in the same building they were in under Wirth. Everyone who followed Wirth Research out of Banbury has ended up back in Bicester, where WR were before moving to WRTC.

The signs on the gates at WRTC have all changed to MVR over the weekend, so it looks like it is already begun...

Hope this helps clear up the whole situation.

[marcush.]

thanks. that does make sense now.

[mkeRed]

I don't like necro-posting but I can't help but think that this McLaren-Virgin technical partnership has a lot to do with the comments Martin recently made to F1.com. Basically I think they're trying to set a good example for teams getting into the sport and this deal may be quite a turning point for the sport if they do it correctly as they can set a great example for incoming manufacturers.

Here is an excerpt:

Q: What would such a comeback look like? As works teams or primarily as technical partners?
MW: Well, McLaren has chosen to have technical partnerships, because I think for Ferrari and ourselves, our core business is Formula One so we will be here in the long run. You have to accept that an automotive company’s core business isn’t Formula One, and consequently we have to accept that there will be times when their marketing budgets will make them pull out, so they will come and go and we should not criticize them for that. But we ought to make Formula One attractive enough. Then I think it could be possible to have four or five automotive companies involved. If these automotive companies go for complete team ownership, then inherently that’s unstable because when they go that leaves a mess. We had that with Honda, Toyota and BMW, who came in for ownership and it has been difficult for the sport to manage that. If they come in as technical partners and then decide to quit that’s an easier situation to manage. So I think the ideal model is that we create a situation where we are attractive, we’re relevant and we are powerful and appropriate for automotive manufacturers to be involved in, because the natural affinity is automotive.

and the full link : http://www.formula1.com/news/interviews ... 12313.html

There may be many eyes from a few manufacturers watching the Virgin team for the rest of the year and next to see how the develop.