Virgin fail to finish but debut display offers hope for future

As Fernando Alonso danced about on the makeshift stage celebrating a deserved victory with trophy held aloft, the likes of Timo Glock, Lucas di Grassi and Nick Wirth started to pick through the pieces of a weekend that promised so much, but in the end delivered very little.

Dogged by problems throughout testing and again in qualification for this race, it was perhaps no surprise that both Virgin drivers were forced to drop out well before the 49th and final lap.

For Brazilian di Grassi, the experience of his first grand prix ended after just three circuits of the Sakhir track while German Glock was actually showing some encouraging signs before he too was forced out, reaching the 18th lap of the race.

As Virgin supremo Richard Branson looked on, it was hardly the kind of start to inject belief that this hastily-arranged set-up can make waves in the world of Formula 1.

But, in all honesty, performance was always going to be somewhat secondary on this historic day. The very fact that a team from Yorkshire, an operation which was started by team principal John Booth in the unlikely surrounds of his Rotherham garage, could even make it to the grid of an F1 grand prix must surely be classed a success.

For Booth and his team to have made it to Bahrain at all deserves huge credit. Now the task is for them to build on their performance and improve when they travel to Australia in two weeks.

And there were certainly aspects for the team to feel positive about.

Glock shrugged off the disappointment and no little embarrassment of seeing a wheel fly off during qualifying to finish fastest of all the new F1 teams.

He was quicker than both of the Lotus cars and there were glimpses on both Saturday and yesterday that the car built by Wirth and his colleagues could actually compete.

Indeed, both Glock and di Grassi got off to good starts, Glock gaining a place and di Grassi making up three positions on the opening lap.

However, di Grassi lost hydraulic pressure and then Glock suffered a gearbox problem to end all Yorkshire hopes of a fairytale debut.

"The race was going quite well for me after I managed to overtake Heikki Kovalainen," said Glock after the race. "We were having quite a good battle for where we were and it was nice to have that racing feeling again. But first I lost third gear and I was having to drive around it. Then fifth followed and it was impossible to continue.

"We tried to find a fix but there was no way of getting back in the race, not even to get some important development mileage. It's disappointing but we have to take the rough with the smooth at this stage.

"We just need to focus now on doing whatever we need to do to come back stronger in Melbourne. It has been an epic battle for us to reach this point and the biggest thing we can take as a reward was our qualifying result on Saturday, which showed what we can do if we continue to keep pushing."

His partner di Grassi was also philosophical about Virgin's opening race troubles.

"I got a great start and the car was feeling pretty good," he said. "I think we could have had a good race with the car that we had but then just a few laps into the race I had to pull over and my race was over before it had really begun.

"There's no point being downhearted. We'll be back in Melbourne with some new developments and a fix for the problems we experienced here. It's race one of 19 and there's a long way to go yet.

"The team has done an incredible job here and over the past few months. It's been a huge effort and I hope for a better result for everyone in Australia."

Technical Director Wirth and his team had worked through the night to ensure both cars were ready for their opening race and he will now spend the next fortnight trying to work through the problems faced.

With every race expected to present the team with a steep learning curve, he is confident that they will improve with every passing race.

His first lesson this weekend told him that they had in fact built a decent car capable of competing on the F1 circuit.

Designed entirely by computer without the use of a windtunnel, using the CFD design approach, the car looked good and Wirth was delighted.

"We leave our first grand prix disappointed that we did not manage to get either car to the finish but at least we haven't had a repeat of any of our winter testing problems," he said. "Most importantly, we now know that our faith in the all-CFD design approach was justified, as we have demonstrated that we have built a competitive Formula 1 car. That is one reward that we can take away from this weekend."

Virgin may have out-paced the Lotus cars in qualifying, but their failure to finish meant it was their rival newcomers who took the honours among the debutants.

Heikki Kovalainen finished 15th while team-mate Jarno Trulli was classified 17th, although a hydraulic problem forced the Italian to pull over on his final lap, so he was officially recorded as DNF (did not finish).

Despite that, team principal Tony Fernandes could not contain his pride and joy at the result for a team that was only re-born six months ago, 16 years after Lotus last competed in the sport.

"I'm completely over the moon," exclaimed entrepreneur Fernandes, who runs the AirAsia airline. "I cannot describe the feeling. We're thrilled, we're happy and the spirit in the team is fantastic. I'm really proud of Jarno, Heikki and everyone here. It's a great start and better than I could have dreamed of.

"We wanted to finish the race, and to do so ahead of established teams is fantastic."