The Misfortunes of Alvaro Parente at Virgin!
Alvaro Parente lost his role as a test driver with Virgin Racing due to the withdrawal of the Portuguese tourism office as a team sponsor. Indeed, the sponsorship agreement between the two parties failed. The 2005 British Formula 3 champion was announced as one of Virgin’s two reserve drivers at the end of last year, […]
Alvaro Parente lost his role as a test driver with Virgin Racing due to the withdrawal of the Portuguese tourism office as a team sponsor. Indeed, the sponsorship agreement between the two parties failed.
The 2005 British Formula 3 champion was announced as one of Virgin’s two reserve drivers at the end of last year, but the Portuguese organization withdrew, leaving the driver without a budget for 2010.
« After accepting a deal, everything falls through without me asking for it, » he said this week to the magazine Autosport. It’s already very late in the year so I’m a bit in the s***. I will try to find something for this year, but I no longer have a budget now, it’s crazy. »
Nearly 2000 Portuguese fans have signed a petition protesting against the sponsor’s decision. With a clear lack of funding, another GP2 season is now out of reach. Parente claims to be exploring other possibilities elsewhere.
« I have some proposals to do some races in GT Open and we’ve had contacts with Superleague. Nothing is confirmed. But it wasn’t what I wanted. Formula 1 has always been my main goal, so we’ll see what happens. »
