Timo Glock wants his new Virgin car to be quick enough to challenge midfield teams in 2011.
Speaking at the launch of the MVR-02 Glock said: “We could be in a good shape for 2011, or in a better shape. ‘Good shape’ doesn’t mean scoring points, it means taking a step forward, closer to the midfield teams.
“An acceptable level would be very close to teams like Sauber, Toro Rosso, maybe Force India.”
He admitted that a difficult 2010 left him wondering whether he should continue driving for Virgin: “I had some thoughts about ‘bloody hell, what am I doing here?’
“Because you’re fighting the whole weekend and then you go into the race and after ten laps you get a radio call ‘Timo, you have to come back to the pits’. It was quite tough, quite hard.”
He stressed it’s important that the team hits the ground running when it starts testing the MVR-02 in Jerez next week:
“I just want to drive 800km a day and fall into bed and say ‘OK, I did enough today’, and it was not that the car broke down again.
“What we have to make sure is at the first test we have to hit the track and drive, drive, drive. See where the bad points are on the car to sort them out before the first race.
“Because if you come to the first race and you’ve got a light of problems then you can’t sort it out, you’re already in trouble, and you start on the back foot.”
Dan Selby
7th February 2011, 14:53
Not often a driver’s that open about his frustrations in his current team. Can’t help but feel this’ll be the final season for the Glock/Virgin partnership.
Dev
7th February 2011, 14:59
unless Renault can take him to replace Kubica.
djdaveyp
7th February 2011, 15:17
Renault already said at the car launch that bruno senna will take the seat should anything happen to their main drivers, why would anybody speculate anything else? None of the reputable F1 news sites are (f1fanatic being at the top of that list)!
Dev
7th February 2011, 15:49
BBC guy tweeted about LRGP looking out for options if Kubica is going to take too long to return to active racing, Senna is back up if main driver is not available for few races, but Senna is not expected to take the role of the main driver.
Fixy (@)
7th February 2011, 16:36
I think the same.
Spaulding (@spaulding)
7th February 2011, 16:46
Also, this early into the season (i.e. pre-season testing), experience counts more than good speed but no (well almost no) experience. If Senna is actually able to understand the cars he drives and give worthwhile feedback, then maybe he can actually help the team develop, but that trait is incredibly rare in a rookie, let alone someone who oly has experience developing a car enogh to get it running and drivable, let alone making it go fast and shave off a few tenths.
newskiller (@newskiller)
7th February 2011, 17:50
a) Because they understand the limitations of that statement. LRGP told the BBC “we have already started to think and work on a contingency plan” If that simply meant Senna they’d have said it.
b) Take another look. Is the BBC disreputable?
tomorrow there will be others.
Andy C
7th February 2011, 20:27
I wondered about that myself today actually. Was there not a rumoured link-up with Renault midway through last season?
For what its worth, I’d really like to see Bruno given a chance, even if it is in testing, to show his pace.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
7th February 2011, 20:33
I’d be surprised if he isn’t given some seat time in testing now that Kubica’s out, unless they sign Räikkönen or Heidfeld in the next two days.
John H
7th February 2011, 21:51
It won’t happen, but Glock really does deserve to be driving a better car.
BasCB (@bascb)
7th February 2011, 15:02
Wow, not often do you hear a driver talk this openly about his frustrations in the team. I suppose they clearly see a big improvement.
Glock is right, unreliability was the biggest problem last year. They should tackle that, get some solid downforce on the car and start developing throughout the year.
I expect they will bring out the car as is to be sure everything is working and do some miles on it. But then do some testing with an exhaust like Renault during the pre season to see weather they can make that work.
S.J.M (@sjm)
7th February 2011, 15:14
He’s got a point though. The good (or better) thing for all the new teams this year is they’ve had a season under their belts, know what F1 is like and can now look at improving.
Everyone, with the exception of Bernie and Ferrari, allowed the newbies to get on with it and be prepared for them to be moving chicanes. This year the expectation is on them to up their game (all 3 of them). Virgins car last year appeared to be slightly quicker of the 3 new teams out the box, but as Glock points out it wasnt very reliable. The big hope for Virgin is that with some more downforce being put on the car and pray to god the insides dont brake. I hope they make a leap forward (like i hope T.Lotus do) and push for the points, or atleast compete for them.
I am a little worried about them staying with Xtrac for their hydrolics/gearbox. I think the smart move would have been what HRT and T.Lotus did and splash a little cash on a proven package.
sw6569 (@sw6569)
7th February 2011, 15:22
I’m not sure i’d describe Sauber or Torro Rosso as midfield teams. Last of the non new runners maybe. I don’t think Virgin will have a problem racing with them
Todfod (@todfod)
7th February 2011, 19:13
I really doubt Virgin will be racing with Sauber and Toro Rosso. I think they need to worry about HRT, considering that HRT will get a slight performance boost due to their partnership with Williams. It would be really embarrassing for them if they get beaten by HRT 2 years in a row, especially more with Karthkeyan behind the wheel.
Andy C
7th February 2011, 20:25
From what I understand, the “new” HRT is a significant redesign.
According to Coops, he said only the top of the top front of the monocoque is carried over.
Guess we will see, but the Geoff Willis knows a thing or two about an F1 car doesnt he.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
7th February 2011, 22:15
I think Glock’s ideas of where his team will be are a lot more reasonable than, say, Tony Fernandes’.
OEL
8th February 2011, 14:05
Very much so, Team Lotus won’t have the 5th fastest car at the end of the season unless their new car is a miracle.
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
8th February 2011, 1:57
It’s easy to say then done, I wonder how much an improvement of a car is the 2011 using again only CFD.
Stephen Jones (@aus_steve)
8th February 2011, 8:05
“Challenge Midfield Teams”
“Midfield Teams”
“Midfield”
car looks exactly like midfield!
Jamie Franklin
8th February 2011, 23:49
I really don’t think they’ll be in shape to challenge Sauber and Toro Rosso this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if Lotus have managed to take a step into that margin, but Virgin don’t look to have done enough really.
I personally think that they’ll be battling with HRT this year, and right now, I’d say HRT definitely looks better…It’ll be interesting to see who comes out on top.
Berta Zrake
10th February 2011, 22:13
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