Brawn GP could be renamed with the Virgin brand name after Richard Branson confirmed his deal with the high-flying Formula One team.
Brawn GP could be renamed to carry the Virgin brand name after Richard Branson confirmed the partnership deal with the high-flying Formula One team.
Branson confirmed Virgin's first steps into Formula One in Melbourne shortly before watching Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello seal an all-Brawn GP front row at the Australian Grand Prix.
Virgin nearly bought-up the folding Honda outfit before technical maestro Ross Brawn completed a management buy-out to save the team and continue racing.
From then they have gone from strength to strength and have been flying in practice before nailing pole position at Albert Park.
"I have always said I would love for Virgin to be involved in Formula One, and I am thrilled we will be entering this fantastic sport with people as skilled as Ross Brawn and the Brawn GP team," said Branson in confirming the deal.
"Over the years Virgin has had the great honour of partnering with technical geniuses, and I truly believe Ross Brawn is to Formula One what Burt Ratan is to Virgin Galactic."
Virgin name
Branson added that the Brawn GP team could evolve and be renamed after his Virgin empire, and hopes that a bigger deal can be arranged in the near future.
"It is certainly a possibility. But we will see what happens over the next three or four weeks," Branson added.
"The team does not want to waste the name of the team on something that is not promoting anything, and everybody knows it has a great engineer so the team doesn't need for it be called after an engineer. That may well change, but we will see what happens.
"I think all of us need time. First of all they have had to save the team; they have had to get the racing going.
"We are hoping that we will have a proper marriage quite soon - but we are a Virgin bride, and they may find that someone comes in and offers them something even better before this bride marries up with them!
"But it is more likely than not that we will get something sorted in the next few weeks."
Brawn happy
Brawn feels the arrival of Branson and Virgin in Formula One will have a big impact on the sport.
"Virgin Group has a major involvement in many industries which have synergies with our work here in F1," said Brawn.
"The efforts the sport is making, led by the FIA, to improve the environmental credentials of F1 are extremely important for our society and our objectives for our sport. Richard and the Virgin Group are well aligned with our plans for the future.
"I know Richard shares my views that you can have a much greater influence working on the inside making positive changes."
Branson was close to buying the old Honda team himself, and had mentioned at the time he would only move into F1 on two conditions: if the sport cut costs and it became greener.
Green sport
Explaining his decision, he added: "As you know Bernie Ecclestone has announced new entrants will be able to get into Formula One at a much lower cost.
"That will encourage a lot of new companies to get involved with the sport and make it much more exciting.
"As far as clean fuel is concerned, we have invested quite a considerable sum of money in a company called Geva.
"One of the tasks they have had is to see if they can come up with a fuel for Formula One, maybe called the Virgin fuel, that is clean, doesn't emit any carbon, and can perform as well as the dirty fuels used in cars to date.
"I'm delighted to say they have come up with such a fuel, and over the next few months we will be trying to talk to Formula One and the various car companies to see if we can have it introduced as the one F1 uses so it can go from being a slightly polluting sport to a clean sport.
"As far as I'm concerned, I'm looking forward to working within the sport to try to change it."
