Quaife-Hobbs conducts straight line test to evaluate new package for Virgin

In a day of ‘firsts’ for Marussia Virgin Racing and GP3 driver Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, the F1 team completed its first straight-line aero test at Idiada in Spain today and handed the reins of the MVR-02 to one of the rising stars from the Marussia Manor Racing GP3 stable.

The team’s objective was to conduct some detailed evaluation work with the updated MVR-02 package, introduced in Turkey last weekend, in order to extract more from the developments at next week’s Spanish Grand Prix. The test also provided the team with an opportunity to continue it’s commitment to the pool of emerging talent in its Young Driver Programme, with the 20 year old Brit conducting his debut run in an F1 car. Fellow Marussia Manor Racing driver and team-mate Rio Haryanto got his own inaugural run with the team at the end of season Abu Dhabi Test in 2010.

The team enjoyed a solid day of testing, with the MVR-02 running reliably throughout. Adrian completed 146km, enabling the team to gather plenty of data with which to further develop the package.

John Booth, Team Principal: “Congratulations to Adrian on a very impressive debut in the Marussia Virgin Racing MVR-02 today. It really is extremely rewarding to put these young guys in the car and see how they respond to such an opportunity. He acclimatised well to the car and developed a strong rapport with the engineers and mechanics, so he should feel pleased with his first day’s work in a Formula One car. Overall it has been a very productive test for us, with the Idiada proving ground providing us with excellent conditions with which to test the updated package that we introduced at the last race. As we might have expected in its debut outing, we experienced a few teething problems in Istanbul and this test has provided us with the opportunity to understand more of the potential of the developments. We’re looking forward to seeing further signs of progress in Spain next week.”

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs: “It has been an incredibly special day for me. Driving a Formula One car is what you always dream of from the moment you start karting, so it has been fantastic to finally experience that. I completed a lot of runs for the team and helped them to collect a lot of data. I can’t thank Marussia Virgin Racing enough for this amazing opportunity, as it really allows me to gain experience and see how a Formula One team works. Experiences like this only make you hungry for more and it’s exciting to get a taste of what the future could hold.”