Silverstone debut for Virgin Racing

Virgin Racing, formerly Manor Grand Prix, will make their testing debut at Silverstone on 4 February Timo Glock told Auto Moto und Sport.

The new Cosworth-powered challenger’s design is penned by Nick Wirth and the team has opted not o travel to Valencia but instead work closer to home with the brand new car.

While Cosworth is an unknown quantity in terms of efficiency and power, Glock is confident that the new package will be competitive.

"The numbers are good enough for a good start, but I wait with comments until I’m sitting in the car," he said. "I hope that the data are transferable to the track. The crucial question is; how good is our base? We try as soon as possible to push towards the top ten and compete for points. It would be great if we could achieve that in our first season. This is of course damn hard.”

While Glock prepares for the new season racing alongside Lucas di Grassi, Michael Schumacher’s return to Formula One is making many of the headlines in Germany.

Schumacher has requested and been granted the #3 on the front of his car by Mercedes, leaving new team-mate Nico Rosberg with the lower number. While the ’team orders’ situation has not been discussed, Glock believes that Rosberg now faces a tough situation and the “the situation has become more difficult for him.”