Branson launches Virgin Racing F1 team

Sir Richard Branson's love of Formula One resulted in one of the world's richest men throwing the full weight of the Virgin brand behind one of the sport's new teams on Tuesday.

Manor GP, one of four new marques who will help make up an expanded 13-team grid for next season, have been rebranded Virgin Racing thanks to a multi-million pound sponsorship deal with Branson.

Tycoon Branson confirmed one of F1's worst-kept secrets at a press conference in Notting Hill, London.

Branson's entrance, along with Manor boss John Booth and technical director Nick Wirth, was heralded by a dozen electric guitarists creating a sound akin to a Formula One engine.

Explaining his latest venture, Branson said: "Our first year in F1 (with Brawn GP) was tremendous for the Virgin brand, so why not go in again with a new team from scratch?

"If you look at the history of Virgin we've loved supporting technical breakthroughs, great engineers, and there's something like 120 engineers working away on this project."

Branson revealed Virgin Racing will operate on the smallest budget of any of the new teams, under £40million.

Booth, whose Sheffield-based team are arguably the surprise package, has confirmed his hope the car will be ready for its first test at the end of January.

The team, meanwhile, have also announced the signing of Lucas di Grassi as partner to Timo Glock after two seasons in GP2, and as test and reserve driver with Renault.

"Timo and I are here together to build a team," remarked di Grassi. "We're not working as separate individuals, but as a whole group, working as hard as we can to push the team forward."