Marussia and Virgin Racing

The new Virgin Racing Formula One team, launched by Sir Richard Branson in London yesterday, is delighted to announce a major partnership with Marussia, Russia’s only sports car.

Formula One is the perfect stage for Marussia’s high performance sports cars. Created in 2007 by the company President Nikolay Fomenko and ideologist Yefim Ostrovsky, Marussia’s philosophy for its cars is ‘Innovation built on reliability’. The group has seen its concept morph into reality with the launch at the Frankfurt Auto Fair in 2009 of its B1 and B2 models. This arrival on the global stage heralded the appearance of the first Russian sports car.

In a multi-year deal Marussia will be high profile in the global F1 world with Virgin Racing, enjoying major on-car, driver and team branding. It also enters into a relationship with Virgin Racing’s engine partner Cosworth. Cosworth is proud to have produced one of the most successful engines in the history of Formula One motor racing and its skill and expertise will supply Marussia with drive trains and other engineering services over a multi-year partnership.

To reflect this dynamic partnership, Marussia is developing a racing version of its car using F1 technologies such as advanced electronics and aerodynamic design. Technology is a key word for Marussia as it develops the high performance cars of the future.

Alex Tai, Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Racing, said: “Welcoming Marussia to the Virgin Racing family is a reflection of the truly global nature of our partners. We are delighted to have Russia’s first high performance sports car producer as a partner of both the team and Cosworth. The technical innovation and their visionary approach is completely in tune with our values at Virgin.”

Project Marussia is the culmination of Nikolay Fomenko’s 15 year career in motor sport, which started in 1994 in the Russian Survival Races and Rally Cross, and which saw victories in the FIA Grand Touring Series and the Le Mans Endurance Championship.

Marussia’s President Nikolay Fomenko said: “We are very proud to partner with Virgin Racing which like us is a young, innovative group of people dedicated to excellence and thinking outside the box. Formula One is the pinnacle of motor sport and the perfect environment to constantly strive for the best.”