Graeme Lowdon on Virgin's deal with McLaren

The build-up to the British Grand Prix could have been turbulent for Virgin Racing, with the team announcing only a few weeks ago that it was to part ways with its technical director Nick Wirth.

On Monday July 5, however, the team received a welcome boost by revealing it had concluded a deal to receive technical assistance and advice from McLaren. As part of the deal, Virgin will have access to McLaren's facilities - such as test rigs, simulators and computer technology - plus its wind tunnel.

The team backed that up with the purchase of Wirth Racing Technologies and its Banbury facility, providing a statement of intent for its long-term future - as sporting director Graeme Lowdon told AUTOSPORT.

Q: You had a difficult start to this year and then split from Nick Wirth. Is this McLaren deal a statement of intent?

Graeme Lowdon: "Yes, it is. We've always said we are serious about moving forward and the precious commodity that we have is time, so the link up with McLaren will hopefully help accelerate from where we are to where we want to be - that's really the key link. "We've always had a good relationship with McLaren. If you wind the clock back to the Manor days, Manor worked with McLaren for probably five to six years on driver development and programmes, with Lewis [Hamilton for example], so there's good personal relationships and personal chemistry. Obviously we're hoping that the relationship will help us get technically where we need to be."

Q: Was it something that McLaren suggested to you?

GL: "Funnily enough, the paddock has been a hugely fertile area for people to look to try and collaborate for a number of different reasons. Partly it's because people have got resources available now and that's a good thing. I can't remember exactly how the initial discussions came about, but we've been talking to McLaren and a lot of the other teams pretty much from the first day we came in about different opportunities, and this one just really gelled together for where we needed to be. It's a long-term relationship so we're certainly hoping that it's going to be a fruitful one for us."

Q: Is it similar to the Force India relationship?

Graeme Lowdon © sutton-images.com

GL: "Its similar, and certainly that was one of the things we evaluated because we had approaches from lots of different teams. One of the things we valued highly at McLaren was the fact they have experience of working with the teams and have a track record of showing that this can be productive, so that definitely helped.

"The scope of the agreement is certainly different, in that we have different engines - I think in the Force India one they have a gearbox deal and we don't, and Force India have got their own wind tunnel. The focus is on different areas really and with a different emphasis. The fact that they have had a successful relationship - or have a successful relationship - was pretty useful."

Q: Is McLaren working on this year's car, or is everything being shifted to next year?

GL: "The prime focus is going to be the 2012 car, as it is for most teams in the paddock now, so there's a lot of activity internally on that. We think that there will be some benefits for the 2011 car by osmosis as opposed to a specific focus on the 2011 car, and also we had some ideas ourselves in the pipeline.

"It's not a case of just forgetting what's happening in 2011, we're still pushing really hard. Qualifying pace less so, but in race pace we've been able to mix it reasonably well with the teams around us. We certainly want to improve where we're at with the 2011 car, but the main realisation will be from 2012 onwards."

Q: How quickly are you getting the new technical set-up together and how quickly will they be able to help on next year's car?

GL: "Really quick. Pat [Symonds] has been advising on overall structure for some time. He had a good look at how we were going about things and that's been really useful given his obvious experience. We signed the deal with Nick last week, and also with McLaren last week, and our first ownership of the Banbury site was Monday. On the Monday morning we went in there for a board meeting and already every sign outside said Marussia Virgin Racing, all the graphics inside were of pictures of the cars and there was a show car in the foyer. It was instant and seamless.

"We've been very lucky in that we've managed to retain a lot of the design team who have been working on the project for some time now, so we've got that continuity and it meant we could really hit the ground running and take more control of the technical direction of where we're headed. Dave Greenwood, who is the chief engineer, has been with us from the start and is in a position to really help take control of the direction, and the drivers as well have both been sitting with the designers. It's a great atmosphere and I'd certainly be disappointed if it didn't translate onto the track in due course. Of course it's not going to happen overnight, but we're in a really good position for us to gain some advantage quite quickly I think."

Q: What about Timo Glock's motivation coming forward? A few months ago your chances of keeping him looked slim. Is it a different situation now?

GL: "Obviously the best bet is to ask him, but I spent yesterday evening with him and we talked a lot about the whole project. He's been in it from the start as well and he's committed a lot more than a lot of the drivers up and down the pitlane into this team, so I think he's really excited to see that there are some very bold and positive steps.

"It's a real statement of intent that we want to be in the pack as quickly as possible, and get to a situation where we are really challenging in races. He can see that, he knows the right elements are in place and I think he's quite excited which is good."

Q. There is speculation that the deal could involve some McLaren test drivers coming to race for you. Has there been any discussions on a link up?

Virgin hopes the McLaren deal turns its fortunes around © LAT

GL: "There's no commitment to do that, but as I mentioned before, we've had a history of working together with McLaren young drivers going back 10 years. Obviously they deal with pretty good drivers and we do as well. There's nothing that stipulates we would have to take this driver or that driver or anything else like that."

Q: In terms of the buzz within the team, has this been one of its best weeks?

GL: "We've always had a great team spirit, and we've been through some challenging times as a team and that always brings everyone together. Nobody lost any faith in the long-term picture of what we wanted to do, and we've retained that team spirit through some difficult times. The good thing is when people really see positive steps forward then that spirit is enhanced even more.

"It's a very very tight-knit, very strong team and we're lacking one thing at the moment and that's a reflection of the commitment in results on the track. If we can bring that, that's the missing piece of the jigsaw at the moment. It's a great place to work.

"We've been absolutely inundated with applicants of a very high quality, and we're really happy with that. I think people know this is actually a pretty good team, it's just not reflected on the track up to now."

Q: With Williams leaving for Renault next season, in effect you have a chance to become Cosworth's main focus, don't you?

GL: "We've got another year of the Cosworth contract and it could be extended. We've worked pretty well with them. Williams provide us with a quite a good benchmark - they were on pole in Brazil last year and we weren't and we had the same engine, so that's a reasonably good measure of where your chassis and everything else is at. We know that we need to do a lot more with the car, so from that point of view we're really happy with the relationship continuing. We've never had a problem with the support we've had from Cosworth - or course you always want more but I'm pretty happy with the way things are going with them."