Virgin Racing Formula 1 team, now owned by Russian car maker Marussia, unveiled their 2011 race car in London. Not sure what they were thinning of, but the MVR-02 looks totally different than all the others and that means it has different aerodynamic characteristics.

As a matter of fact it looks like 2007-2008 F2 cars! Chances are 2011 Virgin’s car is rubbish, unless they’ve found a new design and technology that all the big players like Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes and… are not aware of! What’s more it doesn’t feature KERS either.

But it gets a moveable rear wing and a Cosworth CA2011 V8 engine with exhaust sticking out of the rear diffuser. As mentioned, this car is different!

Marussia Virgin MVR-02 will be driven by Timo Glock and Jerome D’Ambrosio.

“Since the middle of year we worked on process, we calibrated how fast we had to improve and what did we have to work on, We have done a huge amount of development of physics and what we are doing to catch up with everyone.  The back of car is heavily regulated from last year, and we managed to take this car and not only catch up where we were, but go above it in terms of aero efficiency – in every single way this car is faster and better than last year.” Technical director Nick Wirth.

“The MVR-02 is a clear step forward in every area and a credit to all the hard work that has gone into our car development programme over the past 12 months. We are delighted to be working with our engine supplier Cosworth for a second season of collaboration. Despite the freeze on engine development they have been working hard on reliability and performance optimisation over the winter and we fully expect a continuation of the success they enjoyed in their return to the sport in 2010. The sport has the added challenge of a new tyre supplier in Pirelli but we have made good progress with tailoring our mechanical package to suit the new Pzero tyres in the group tests in Abu Dhabi at the end of 2010 and in Valencia last week. Generally, we have every reason to believe that 2011 will be a very exciting and positive experience for our team.” John Booth, Team Principal.