Yorkshire's F1 team pitting their wits against big boys

The Yorkshire team have met all their deadlines on the road to next month's opening grand prix in Bahrain but the next four days on the west coast of Spain could prove the most telling.

With the majority of established marques on track today having already put their systems and drivers through their paces in the opening testing session in Valencia last week, all eyes will be on the team born out of Dinnington-based Manor Motorsport.

Timo Glock and Lucas Di Grassi, Virgin's two drivers, got their first chance to drive the car after months of testing on the computer fluid dynamics (CFD) simulators at Virgin's Wirth Research plant at Oxfordshire, in the shakedown at Silverstone last week.

German Glock completed 42 laps of the British Grand Prix circuit and Brazilian di Grassi 36.

They now pit their wits against some of the biggest names in Formula 1, but for team principal John Booth, testing in Jerez this week and next and in Barcelona at the end of the month is more about reliability than competitiveness.

"You can never tell 100 per cent how things will pan out in testing because you don't know what tyres people are going to have on and what the fuel levels are," said Booth.

"But we are looking for reliability – that's our first goal, for the car to run well.

"Then we'll think about competitiveness once we have got the reliability nailed down."

One of the major rule changes for 2010, the banning of mid-race refuelling, at least levels the playing field for Virgin Racing.

While teams like Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes have had to change well-rehearsed pit-lane practices, Sir Richard Branson's team have had a blank canvas on which to work.

It has also helped the team's transition from the Formula 3 support classes, in terms of man-power and budget adjustment.

"It makes life easier for us in year one," said Booth, whose team will operate on an annual budget of 40m – the lowest on the grid. "It means less people and less equipment are required. And the planning for the race strategy suddenly becomes much easier. So for us, it's a big plus."

Testing this week is another major landmark in Virgin's Formula 1 journey following the success of last week's shakedown of systems and dynamics.

Booth said: "Our shakedown provided our very first opportunity to work together as a trackside operation and it couldn't have gone any better.

"The way the team has come together to achieve such a successful shakedown has been commendable.

"I'm very proud of what we have achieved and we're looking forward to taking our place alongside the other F1 teams in the pitlane this week."