Parts shortage brings Virgin test to a standstill 11 Feb 2010
Virgin, one of four new teams joining the 2010 grid, will miss the rest of Thursday’s test at Jerez because of a shortage of spare parts for their new car. The front wing of the VR-01 came off whilst Timo Glock was in action at the Spanish circuit this morning, and without suitable replacement parts, the squad will have to sit out the rest of the day’s running.
“This morning we experienced a front wing mounting problem which caused the wing to come off the car at the beginning of a run,” explained Virgin’s technical director, Nick Wirth. “The cause has already been identified. Unfortunately, we’re missing one or two spare parts which will hopefully arrive this evening, so we won’t be able to run for the rest of the day.”
Although Glock managed to cover just five laps on the test’s opening day on Wednesday due to a combination of poor weather and the late arrival of some brand-new parts, Wirth is still feeling positive about the team’s progress.
“In the short amount of running that we’ve achieved so far, we are very encouraged by what we’ve seen and we have gathered some vital aero data which is very much in the range of what we were predicting,” he added. “We look forward to resuming the programme tomorrow morning.”
Glock’s team mate, Lucas di Grassi, is scheduled to take charge of driving duties from Friday for the final two days of the Jerez test.
