Virgin to modify wing mounting
Virgin Racing is modifying its front wing mounting overnight to prevent a repeat of the problem that forced Timo Glock to halt testing today
The VR-01's front wing became detached after 11 laps at Jerez this morning. The team has identified the cause of the issue and is flying in new parts, with some arriving this afternoon and others following overnight.
Virgin will then work to get the car ready for Lucas di Grassi to use from the start of the test at 9am local time tomorrow.
Glock played down the problem and said he had always expected a few glitches as the new squad got up to speed.
"Overall I think that's part of being in a new team, and we have to take it like it is and try to get as much running as possible," he said.
"I said already at the launch that we will have problems which no one knows so far. This is normal. We have to sort it out as quick as possible and it's good that we have it at the test.
"Sure, it would be better to drive more to get more data from the car but that it's clear that we have to sort out quite a lot of stuff, and this is one part of it."
He is confident that designer Nick Wirth will have resolved the wing problem by tomorrow.
"Nick is quite hard on the safety side of it," Glock said. "He wants to have a car that is really solid and has no problems in it. Sure the front wing is a point we have to work on now because that was not expected, but I don't have any doubts. There shouldn't be any stuff but we don't know. It should be okay."
Glock admitted that the loss of mileage was not ideal, with Virgin also having sat out much of Wednesday's session as it waited for new parts and then the rain to ease.
"Tomorrow hopefully it's going to be dry again, but it's a bit of a shame when you have not enough days of testing and you lose a complete day," he said. "For a new team, that's difficult. But that's how it is and it should go better tomorrow."
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