Booth still leads way after Virgin’s backroom shake-up

In a week when Jerome D’Ambrosio drove his first test laps for Virgin and finished in nose-bleed territory of seventh, the team John Booth launched from his own garage in Rotherham 21 years ago has taken on some experienced campaigners.

The big news for Booth is that he retains his role as team principal and director of racing amid an influx of arrivals.

Nikolay Fomenko, president of Marussia Motors the team’s new partner, becomes engineering director and will provide overall leadership for the team’s technology programmes, covering race car development and engineering.

Marussia’s UK managing director Andy Webb assumes the position of chief executive to focus on the executive management of the business.

Graeme Lowdon moves from CEO to team president and sporting director, enabling him to focus on the wide picture of the team’s role within the sport.

One of the biggest coups is the recruitment as chief operating officer of Ian Phillips, a stalwart of the pit lane, having worked for both Jordan and Force India.

Darryl Eales, Virgin Racing’s chairman, said: “The board of directors has reviewed and examined all aspects of the team’s commercial and racing operations during its debut Formula 1 season in order to ascertain what is required to move the team forward quickly and prudently.

“The changes, together with Marussia’s wealth of knowledge and experience, provide us with a solid foundation as we enter our second season. I believe we are very fortunate to have such depth of commercial and racing leadership as we embark on the next step in our ambitious plans for the team.”

On the track, Belgian d’Ambrosio completed 71 laps in Valencia in the old VR-01 car ahead of the unveiling on Monday of the team’s car for 2011.

Testing on the new Pirelli tyres, d’Ambrosio finished seventh overall in the classification with a best lap of 1min 16.003secs.

Booth said: “Jerome did a very good job and I’m really pleased with how the team is working.

“We have started out on the right note but there is still a lot to be done.

“We are heading in the right direction and I’m very pleased with the way things are progressing at this very early stage.”

Timo Glock took the wheel yesterday and continued Virgin’s impressive start by finishing the day eighth fastest, with a quickest lap of 1:15.408.