Virgin Racing to get new design base

Wirth Research, which does all the design work for Virgin Racing, is to relocate to a new facility in Banbury. Nick Wirth’s organization is currently housed in half a dozen units on the Telford Road Industrial Estate in Bicester. The company, which was founded in 2003, has been growing steadily in recent years, largely due to its strategic partnerships with Honda Performance Development Inc, which has resulted in success in the American Le Mans Series with an Acura-branded sports prototype. The company then became part of the Virgin Racing consortium and introduced the ground-breaking Virgin VR-01, which is the first F1 car to have been designed using computational fluid dynamics, rather than the traditional aerodynamic research with wind tunnels. The move, which will take place during the August break, will get Wirth and his team all under the same roof for the first time. Although the team does not have a wind tunnel – and has no intention of getting one – it will create space for a seven-post rig and more production equipment, in addition to the company’s two simulators.

The facility in Banbury is in the factory formerly owned by Ascari Cars. Wirth previously ran the Simtek Grand Prix operation in the same town between 1989 and 1995. Ascari moved its production facilities to Spain recently. Joe Saward