Martin Brundle is relieved he will no longer have to use the word ‘Virgin’ whilst calling formula one races.
The BBC’s lead commentator is referring to Sir Richard Branson’s well-known brand, which has had naming rights at the new-in-2010 British team for the past two seasons.

For 2012, however, with Virgin remaining a sponsor, the team has been granted permission by the F1 Commission to revert to the name of its Russian supercar partner Marussia.

The news, including the Renault/Lotus and Lotus/Caterham name changes, has also been rubber-stamped by the governing FIA.

Regarding Virgin, former McLaren driver Brundle wrote on Twitter: “As (a) F1 commentator I’m so pleased Virgin are changing name next year.

“I have a mental red alert every time I mention their car in close action”, he added.

The F1 Commission on Thursday approved name changes for three formula one teams ahead of the 2012 season.
Next year, Team Lotus will become Caterham, Renault will be called Lotus, and Virgin will adopt the name of its Russian supercar partner Marussia.

Brazilian Livio Oricchio wrote in his O Estado de S.Paulo column that the Renault team no longer has “anything to do with the French carmaker” and in fact owes money to the Boulogne-Billancourt marque.

And the Telegraph reports that although Virgin will now be known as Marussia, Sir Richard Branson’s brand “will continue to pay money” to the team.

“As part of the new deal, believed to be for four years, Virgin will not have any equity but will continue to pay sponsorship”, the report added.

The changes – voted on by the 26 members including Bernie Ecclestone, Jean Todt, race promoters, teams, manufacturers and sponsors – are pending the approval of the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council meeting in December.

Also discussed in Geneva was the 2012 calendar, with events in Austin, Korea and Bahrain reportedly in doubt and Turkey apparently hoping to slot back in with a reduced sanctioning fee.

But a source close to Texas’ scheduled 2012 US grand prix reports that the F1 Commission confirmed next year’s calendar as originally published by the FIA.

British F1 broadcaster the BBC is poised to announce officially that David Coulthard is moving into the race commentary box for 2011.

He will join his former manager and fellow former McLaren driver Martin Brundle, as the often-criticised Jonathan Legard has been dropped.

“Life moves on,” Legard said on Twitter on Tuesday morning. “Ask Nick Heidfeld or Narain Karthikeyan. You never know what’s next.

“To the critical and the complimentary, thanks for the company,” he added.

The Telegraph’s Tom Cary said Brundle will continue his famous grid walk even though he is now the lead commentator, while Coulthard will continue to appear alongside fellow pundit Eddie Jordan “where possible”.

Also early on Tuesday, it emerged that Sir Richard Branson might have to pull out of his appearance as an AirAsia stewardess on a London to Kuala Lumpur flight on 21 February.

The billionaire lost a bet with fellow airline owner Tony Fernandes because Branson’s Virgin Racing finished behind Lotus in 2010.

“(There) may be a delay as Richard injured himself skiing,” said Lotus team boss Fernandes. “Will call him today. So that’s why no announcement yet.”

Team Lotus has decided to ditch its plans for a black and gold livery in 2011.

On Thursday, after Group Lotus announced it is entering F1 with Renault and revealed John Player Special-inspired colours for 2011, fans of the separate Tony Fernandes-headed team urged the Malaysian outfit to stay with its current green and yellow livery next year.

“Having four black cars looking the same I think is silly and one has to relent,” Fernandes told the Reuters news agency.

“We’re not childish and emotional and saying ‘Oh no, we’ve got to be black and gold’. We’re pragmatic,” he added, revealing there had been some “negativity” about the earlier plans for a livery inspired by a cigarette brand.

As for the Lotus name, however, Fernandes vowed to push ahead, meaning the dispute is likely to now be settled in the London High Court sometime next year.

“Having two Lotus brands on the grid I think is no issue,” he said.

Meanwhile, a date has been set for Sir Richard Branson’s day as a skirt-wearing AirAsia stewardess, after losing a bet with Fernandes this year.

“It’s confirmed February 21, 2011,” Fernandes wrote on Twitter, revealing the flight will travel from London to Kuala Lumpur.

F1′s three new teams have been “an embarrassment” for the sport in 2010, according to chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.

Through additional financial incentives, the 80-year-old Briton actively enticed new entrants into pitlane this year.

But he has told the Financial Times that Virgin, Lotus and HRT have ultimately added no value to F1 because of their lack of competitiveness.

“They do nothing for us, they are an embarrassment,” said Ecclestone. “We need to get rid of a few of those cripples.”

He clarified that the Malaysian team Lotus is worth keeping in F1 beyond 2010, and called for Sir Richard Branson to put some serious money into Virgin.

“Richard should put some money in there shouldn’t he? He could do what (Red Bull chief Dietrich Mateschitz) has done and put some money in.”

Timo Glock has acknowledged that Virgin finishing tenth in this year’s constructors’ world championship is very unlikely.

None of F1′s new teams have come close to scoring a point so far this season.

But Heikki Kovalainen’s 13th place finish in Australia in late March means Lotus is currently tenth, ahead of fellow non-scorers Lotus and HRT.

Apart from special new team bonuses promised by Bernie Ecclestone, the sport’s commercial prize-money pool is shared between only the top ten teams, based on their ranking in the constructors’ championship.

It means the new teams this year are battling for literally millions in additional and crucial funding.

“It is an innovative structure, and if you do well on the track then you get very well rewarded,” Virgin’s team chief executive Graeme Lowdon admitted earlier this year.

So confident was main sponsor Sir Richard Branson at the start of 2010, he agreed with Tony Fernandes – boss of the rival Lotus team – that the loser should spend a fully-uniformed day as a stewardess on the other’s airline.

“I think Tony will be fetching as a Virgin stewardess,” billionaire Branson said last weekend.

“I think he is making an outfit for me as well,” he confirmed.

But according to lead driver Timo Glock, he thinks it unlikely the Virgin team will be able to dislodge Lotus from the coveted tenth position by recording a twelfth place finish in one of the remaining races.

“It will be very difficult,” he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

“Maybe if there’s a crazy wet race or something like that.  Otherwise I don’t see any chance,” he added.

Stewardess or not, Branson said he remains committed to formula one for now, and sounded bullish about 2011.

“Our staff are looking for new sponsors for next season, so there will be less room (on the car) for Virgin,” the Briton is quoted by France’s Auto Hebdo.

John Booth has admitted he was “not particularly pleased” when he heard Bernie Ecclestone predict that two of F1′s struggling teams might fold before the end of the season.

The F1 chief executive said in July that the two teams in question “really shouldn’t be there” and that he would be happy if the grid dropped to just 20 cars.

When asked about his initial reaction to Ecclestone’s comments, Virgin team boss Booth admitted: “I was not particularly pleased, because comments like that for a team like ours can do great damage.

“It is difficult for us at the moment — as it is for other teams, and for all the new teams,” he said in an interview with motorsport-total.com.

Booth said comments like Ecclestone’s can be “destabilising”, but expressed relief that most of Virgin’s sponsors are committed for the long term.

It is believed that each new team was promised 10 million euros by Ecclestone for entering the sport in 2010, meaning that if Virgin or HRT were to fail, the sport’s commercial pot would be correspondingly bigger.

“Yes. Something like that,” confirmed Booth.

Some of the general negativity about the team’s effort so far might be disappointment that the world-renowned brand – headed by high profile billionaire Sir Richard Branson – has failed to live up to Virgin’s image.

Booth responded: “If you look at what we have built up so far, it’s not all bad.

“In formula one there have been probably 30 or 40 new teams, some of which never qualified for a race. But we are there at the start of every race and, step by step, we are getting closer.

“We are where we expected we would be, and maybe even a bit further ahead than that,” he insisted.

“One or two” of F1′s existing twelve teams might bow out of formula one before November’s Abu Dhabi finale, Bernie Ecclestone has warned.

“I think there are a couple of teams in formula one who really shouldn’t be there. They are a bit out of their depth at the moment,” he said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

Losing two teams would drop the grid down to 20 cars, but the FIA is in the process of perhaps allowing Villeneuve/Durango, Epsilon Euskadi, Stefan GP or Cypher Group to debut next year.

But Ecclestone insisted: “All we ever want is 10 teams. Lotus is a good name. I wouldn’t want to lose them. But in general this year has been a bit of a nuisance because it has cost money to keep these (new) teams in.

“It has cost a lot of money to pay for them to compete.”

It is likely the Briton is referring to HRT, who are now shuffling around drivers with the deepest pockets for the two race seats, and Virgin, whose main sponsor Sir Richard Branson said last year the team would have F1′s smallest budget.

“The bottom line is they haven’t really and truly given us value for being there,” said Ecclestone.

“If suddenly these teams don’t turn up at races then I don’t think the crowds will get any smaller, or the TV sets will turn off, or the newspapers will stop writing, will they?” he added.

Jun.14 (GMM) Team sponsor Sir Richard Branson said during his visit to the Canadian grand prix that a new scheme demonstrates Virgin’s “commitment to focusing upon the environmental impact of formula one”.

He said a deal struck with Canadian-based company Carbon Green to recycle tyres “is the first truly green and highly relevant deal in the history of the sport”.

Elaborating, the British billionaire explained: “Old tyres used by Timo Glock, Lucas di Grassi and co will be recycled into useful products.”

But an astute fan asked Bridgestone’s F1 press officer Andy Stobart via Twitter if Branson’s comments were true, given that the tyre supplier usually takes back its products from the teams at the end of a race weekend or test.

Stobart confirmed that the tyres “definitely come back to us” because of the “confidential technology”.

However, he added that Bridgestone’s old tyres are “used for fuel, a positive contribution to energy recovery”.

Jun.13 (GMM)  Sir Richard Branson would like to see a United States grand prix held in Las Vegas.

The British billionaire, sponsor of Virgin Racing, said he welcomes the news that an American race has been scheduled for Texas in 2012.

“The US market is extremely important,” the Virgin mogul told La Presse newspaper at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

“We have a cell phone company here in Canada, our airline will fly to Toronto soon and we will invest in the Canadian investment community.

“But we must also go to the United States,” Branson insisted.  “I think the best places would be San Francisco, or the streets of Las Vegas.”

When told that F1 is planning to be in Texas in a couple of years, he answered: “Texas?  Yeah, ok, but I would still go to Vegas.

“Imagine the cars on the Strip,” he smiled.

Sir Richard Branson on Saturday insisted Virgin Racing is not in danger of dropping out of formula one.

After Bernie Ecclestone hinted that one of the new teams is in trouble, HRT’s Jose Ramon Carabante as well as boss Colin Kolles insisted the F1 chief executive was not talking about the Spanish outfit.

“I’m surprised Bernie said what he did,” billionaire Branson said in Monaco.  “He might know something about the other teams I don’t.”

The Briton told the Daily Mail that Virgin has sponsors on board and will definitely “go all the way to the end of the season, and hopefully for many seasons yet”.

Branson, however, is only the naming sponsor of the rebranded Manor team, and Virgin has struggled both for pace and reliability so far in 2010.

But he insisted: “If they (the team) continue the kind of progress we’ve made to date, we will be delighted and will continue to support it, and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t.

“We went into this with our eyes open and we plan to stick with it as long as they get other sponsors on board, which they are managing to do,” added Branson.

(GMM)

Apr.26 (GMM)  Force India’s chief engineer Dominic Harlow made it back from China in time to contest the 2010 London Marathon.

He completed the 42 kilometre course around the Thames on Sunday in just over three and a half hours.

Even faster was F1′s former safety car driver Oliver Gavin, 37, whose time under 3 hours placed him 657th overall amid 35,000 runners.

“My time today should now be enough to qualify me for the Boston or New York marathons … if I want to do either of them.  My legs need to recover first!” he laughed.

Another F1-related runner was Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin brand sponsored the event.

He crossed the line after 5 hours.