It’s no secret that the Virgin Racing team had quite an abysmal time at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Initially the pre-qualifying practice sessions and the qualifying sessions at the Bahrain Grand Prix did show some amount of hope and promise for the debutants. However, much of their hopes and aspirations were extinguished when both their cars retired within just a few laps of the race.
Both their drivers and the technical director were disappointed and understandably so. After all, the pre-season had started off with much promise for them and it was to be seen how the only team on the grid to have boldly used only CFD design and technology would perform.
Having said all that, all those problems, and the woes of Virgin Racing at Bahrain are all in the past and were not necessarily related to their CFD designed aerodynamics. The cars suffered from hydraulic and transmission problems which made the sun set rather quickly on their weekend in Bahrain.
This time round at the Australian Grand Prix, Virgin Racing certainly hopes to make an impact. It is a rather interesting race, being a street circuit and will require the drivers to use their technical skill. Good speed and lap times will be crucial during the qualifying sessions as the new regulations do seem to have made over-taking a little too difficult.
The Virgin Racing team seems to be rather upbeat about this weekend and one hopes they can certainly do better than the Bahrain Grand Prix. In my opinion, I am certain that they will. After all, let’s not forget that this is a young team with young drivers and there may certainly be a few technical glitches at the start; but nothing that can’t be fixed.
My prediction for the race is that Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi will both complete the race this time round and see the much desired chequered flag. I think that would be a good goal to achieve and as long as the team manages that, this race will be a successful one. I believe that one must climb the ladder to success slowly but surely and a step in the right direction would be to finish the race this street circuit.
Timo Glock is said to like the race track and conditions at the Australian Grand Prix and it would be exciting to see the young Lucas di Grassi race on this circuit for the first time. I certainly look forward to the race this weekend and to Virgin Racing being competitive. I am sure that they will do much better as the season progresses. But my prediction for this weekend is that both the cars make the chequered flag.
