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Virgin faces reliabilty setback

Virgin had a difficult week in Jerez © Sutton Images

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

• Teams:
• Virgin

Virgin has admitted it is behind schedule heading into the final pre-season test and that it will not be able to run its updated aerodynamic package until the first race in Bahrain.

Problems with the VR-01's hydraulic systems meant it completed less laps than any other car at last week's test in Jerez. The lack of running means the team will scrap plans to work on the car's pace at the upcoming test in Barcelona and focus on reliability instead.

"It has been a character-building week, that's for sure," technical director Nick Wirth said. "Despite our best efforts to cure the hydraulic problem, which has beset our entire test, this was simply not achievable with the components that we had available in the field. The specific problem is that we have been losing hydraulic oil at a rate which has limited the number of laps we can achieve on each run and so we look forward to receiving updated parts for the Barcelona test, which we expect to fully resolve the problem.

"Having said that, we will now need to continue focusing on reliability work when we would have liked to introduce our Bahrain-specification aerodynamic updates. The revised programme means we will be reserving our full set of aero warpaint for the first race."

When the car was running reliably last week its pace wasn't too far off its more established rivals and often ahead of the new Lotus. Wirth said that despite the reliability problems there was plenty to be optimistic about.

"On a positive note we have actually completed a lot of good race preparation work and it is satisfying to see the car's potential with minimum set-up changes or development, bearing in mind that we have consistently run with a healthy amount of fuel," he said. "Indeed, none of our lap times have been achieved with anything close to qualifying fuel and therefore we are not letting the frustrations in one specific area overshadow what has generally been an encouraging start to our development programme."

Four more days of testing remain in Barcelona from Thursday to Sunday this week before the first race of the season in Bahrain on March 14.

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