Virgin has confirmed that its newly launched MVR-02 car is not designed to accommodate a KERS system.<\/p>\n
Along with Lotus and HRT, the three teams are the only ones in formula one who will not benefit from the energy-recovery technology in 2011.<\/p>\n
Car designer Nick Wirth defended the decision on the basis that Virgin has other priorities.<\/p>\n
“The fact is it (KERS) is extremely expensive and extremely heavy and it is worth about three tenths of a second — we’re after three seconds,” he said at the car’s launch in London on Monday.<\/p>\n
And continuing driver Timo Glock agreed that Virgin is not going to be pushing the frontrunners in 2011.<\/p>\n
“Realistically you do not make up three or four seconds over the winter, but hopefully we can be closer to the midfield teams,” said the German.<\/p>\n
Wirth said the design team’s biggest focus has been reliability, with hydraulics proving the achilles heel in 2010.<\/p>\n
He confirmed that while Virgin tried a radical Renault-like forward-exiting exhaust in its computer simulators, the team ultimately opted for a more conservative solution.<\/p>\n
“We understand why they (Renault) are doing it, but you need to be a team like Renault from the financial, human and technical resources standpoint to implement it.<\/p>\n
“So we’re happy with our solution,” German reports quote Wirth as saying.<\/p>\n
Glock told Auto Motor und Sport: “Compared to our competitors we can’t afford to have such radical solutions.”<\/p>\n
And the 28-year-old smiled as he confirmed that the fuel tank will be big enough this season.<\/p>\n
“That’s not going to happen to us again,” he said.\u00a0 “This time our tank is too big!”<\/p>\n
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