Sir Richard Branson sponsors Virgin Racing

His track record most of the time is usually spot on. Sir Richard Branson has been behind some of the industries best brands such as Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin Records.

This season he backed Brawn GP which saw it winning both the drivers and constructor title.

And now the British entrepreneur is putting his faith in a new F1 team. His Virgin Group company is sponsoring Manor GP, the car to be designed by Nick Wirth, the former chief designer for the Benetton Formula One team.

With that Manor GP is now known as Virgin Racing.

Branson was quoted, “The temptation might have been to write a big cheque to Brawn and stick with it for another season. But when a team’s won, you can’t really do any better than winning. So we thought it was better to look for a new team and support that.”

Virgin’s car for 2010 will be the first F1 car designed entirely using CFD computer simulation technology.

On 17 November 2009 it was announced by the team that former Toyota driver Timo Glock would be the team’s lead driver for the 2010 season. The driver was signed for two years and has a one year extension offer as well.

Long-time Brazilian GP2 regular Lucas Di Grassi will join him, while fellow GP2 drivers Álvaro Parente and Luiz Razia will fulfill testing and reserve duties.