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Di Grassi gets updated car but it's heavier than Glock's

Lucas di Grassi has had to get by with the older Virgin at the last few races © Getty Images

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• Drivers:
• Lucas di Grassi
• |
• Timo Glock

• Teams:
• Virgin

Lucas di Grassi will get his hands on the revised Virgin chassis for the first time this weekend but the car will be slightly heavier than team-mate Timo Glock's.

Virgin had to alter its car to compensate for a larger fuel tank earlier this season, but due to the ash cloud over Europe and the resulting transport delays, di Grassi has had to wait two races longer for the updates than Glock.

"For the first time I have the upgraded car," he said "Although it is a little heavier than Glock's, because of our difference in height."

Heavier drivers are not normally penalised with heavier cars in F1, due to the 620 kilogram car-plus-driver minimum weight. But because Virgin's basic car-plus-driver weight exceeds the 620kg minimum, the 10cm-taller di Grassi is unavoidably penalised in performance terms. However, di Grassi is still hopeful of taking a big step forward at Istanbul Park.

"These improvements will bring half a second in our laptime," he said. "It has been difficult over the past two races because your best benchmark is always your own team-mate in the same equipment and I haven't been able to make that comparison. It has also been difficult for the team running two different cars. I've spent a lot of time in the Simulators since Monaco to prepare myself for running with the new car and for the challenge of the Istanbul Park Circuit. I've raced here twice before in GP2 and I won both times, so I really like the track. Although we left Monaco empty-handed, we know what we can achieve when things go well. A lot of work has been done back in Bicester and Dinnington over the past week, so I hope we all get to see some reward for those efforts."

Technical director Nick Wirth added that he expected a performance gain purely because the whole team can focus on just one set-up route now the cars are the same.

"The Turkish Grand Prix will be the first time since Shanghai that we have been able to get both drivers into the revised car, and all of the engineering staff are looking forward to using data from both running programmes to get the car dialed in to this tremendous track," Wirth said. "Watching some of F1's top teams struggle through the famous and bumpy Turn 8 last year certainly inspired some of the development direction of the VR-01, and we're looking forward to the challenge that this track represents. We've addressed the issues which prevented us finishing Monaco plus we've brought further revisions to both the aero and mechanical package of the cars, so we are keen to see what we can achieve this weekend."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.