Virgin F1 car designed entirely on computers in Bicester

The VR-01 is the first of a new breed of race car designed entirely in the digital domain using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics).

It is the brainchild of Virgin Racing’s Technical Director, Nick Wirth, based in Bicester, who has gained an international reputation for pioneering a purely CFD approach to car development, wholly designing, building and testing race cars in computer simulation without the need for expensive, resource-heavy scale-model wind tunnel testing.

A new team for a new era of Formula One, the Virgin Racing team concept looks to exploit and capitalise upon F1’s new economic dawn.

The team was launched at an event in London last December, but with the focus now firmly on developing the ground-breaking VR-01 for the start of the 2010 season, it was fitting that the roll-out of the new car should also be ‘all-digital’.

All eyes were on the car’s distinctive red and black livery as the VR-01 commenced its tour of duty at a photographic studio, ahead of an official launch presentation on VirginRacing.com.

PR commitments completed, the VR-01 was taken directly to Silverstone where it will be prepared for a two-day shakedown prior to its first scheduled test in Jerez next week.

A busy schedule lies ahead, much like the one that has taken the VR-01 from dream to reality in the space of just 10 months. Nick Wirth’s design team at Wirth Research in Bicester, started putting the basic layout of the VR-01 together in the early part of 2009 in order to hit the ground running should the team’s 2010 entry be successful.

Twelve days after the team was accepted into the Championship, the design of the monocoque surfaces was locked down and a race against time was under way. The established F1 teams had a significant head start, not least because they had the obvious advantage of evolution, whereas Wirth Research designed the VR-01, quite literally, from a blank computer screen.

Most F1 teams use CFD in the design process but in tandem with scale model testing in one or more wind tunnels. The VR-01 is the product of six months of pure CFD development involving thousands of design solutions generated by the technical team at Wirth Research and the state-of-the-art technology at their Bicester base.

In theory, the team’s pre-season testing programme began several months ago - in the virtual sense - courtesy of what is widely regarded as amongst the most progressive real-time Simulator technology in motor sport.

When race drivers Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi begin testing in anger next week, the VR-01 should feel very similar to the car they ‘drove’ on the Wirth Research simulator.

With the VR-01 now a reality, Virgin Racing Technical Director, Nick Wirth, outlined the team’s objectives for its debut F1 season and the longer term: “Today is a very proud day for everyone involved with Virgin Racing, however on this occasion, where the car is the star, I want to pay tribute to all the amazing people at Wirth Research who deserve so much of the credit for the VR-01. Putting together an F1 team, assembling an engineering group and designing a new car from scratch is an epic task in the timeframe we have been working to.

“I have been fortunate to have worked with the very best designers in F1 and I am well aware of exactly what it takes to be successful in this sport. When you see what the existing teams have achieved using the conventional but proven design approach, it is unsurprising that there is a great deal of scepticism about our all-CFD approach.

"But we are competing in a sport that is undergoing significant change having come face to face with today’s harsh economic realities. Under resource restriction, convention will become too costly and necessity really will be the mother of invention. I have absolute belief in the digital design process and the opportunity to put the all-CFD approach to the test at the highest level - to demonstrate that this could be the way for the future of F1 - is very, very exciting.”

Providing a more detailed insight into the new car, hecontinued: “The VR-01 is the product of an intensive exploration and appraisal of all the factors that go into creating a great racing car, coupled with the more specific parameters of the 2010 Sporting and Technical Regulations.

"The chassis design implications created by the refuelling ban were obviously considerable. The requirement to carry the entire race quantity of fuel creates significant packaging and optimisation challenges.

"Similarly, the reduction in the width of the front tyres and the effect that will have on front-end grip called for extensive modelling and simulation work since we had no data to refer to from previous years. “We believe we have achieved a car that has first-class design integrity and which will benefit from a high degree of aerodynamic efficiency and stability. Reliability has been a major focus and all key areas comply with the FIA safety regulations and crash test requirements for the impact structures – the nose, monocoque, side and rear impact structures - which are particularly stringent in light of the increased fuel load.

Paying tribute to the team behind the team, Wirth said: “We have assembled a fantastic design and engineering group, the calibre of which I could only have dreamed of attracting when we first started out on this journey.

"They bring an exciting blend of youth, experience and creativity, which is an important part of the make-up of the wider Wirth Research group. Our combined strength in depth ensured we were able to maintain a calm, methodical approach despite the challenging timeframe we were working to.

"I’m particularly happy that Wirth Research has remained ahead of the game throughout, with chassis manufacture, gearbox design and casting, crash testing and other long-lead processes all coming to fruition well within schedule.

“We are a serious racing team with serious ambitions, so we aren’t going to try to run before we can walk. The starting point is to try to run reliably, safely and efficiently and be the best of the new teams. Then we will start to bring performance to the car through a continuous development programme in computer simulation.

"We fully expect to encounter issues along the way; CFD is an approximation – as is scale-model testing. In both cases, it is only when you hit the track that you can really appreciate the effect of factors that are tricky to model with any technology such as the effect that the real stiffness of all bodywork components and joints has on the airflow for example. "We’ve done all of this before on both closed and open-wheel cars, so I’m pretty confident in the accuracy of our predictions and looking forward to seeing how our starting configuration performs on the race track."

“We have two very focused and determined race drivers in Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi. The significant effort they have been putting in behind the scenes over the past couple of months in the simulator will prove invaluable as we start to translate our development work to the track-based testing phase.

“It is also fantastic to be working with Cosworth as they embark on a new chapter in their F1 history. They are a strong company and I had the pleasure of racing against them when we were working in Indy cars, where they did a super job. The CA2010 is a nice package and the Cosworth engineers seem very determined to prove themselves again. I’m sure people will see that Cosworth have done a great job.”