Marussia makes its mark at Virgin

Following Marussia’s acquisition of a stake in the team sponsored by Virgin, the team has decided to restructure its management composition to assign key positions to individuals from the Russian manufacturer.

Thus Nikolay Fomenko, the president of Marussia Motors, inherits the position of Director of Engineering for the team. His role will aim to lead the development programs for race cars as well as the technical collaborations with Marussia’s road car program.

It will be interesting to see how this last aspect will be factored into the team’s accounts. Indeed, the RRA (the cost limitation agreement signed by the teams that are members of FOTA) sets a limit on the number of hours the team can spend in computer simulations (it has chosen to do without the wind tunnel) as well as on subcontracting expenses.

As for Graeme London, who was CEO last year, he will now focus on the role of president in order to have perspective on the team’s involvement in the sport and concentrate on the sporting aspect of Virgin Racing. That’s why he remains the team’s representative on the F1 Commission and FOTA while continuing as the sporting director of the team, alongside John Booth, who retains his role as director of competition and team principal. In fact, the CEO position has been assigned to Andy Webb, the director of Marussia in the UK. He will be responsible for the economic development (negotiations with sponsors…) of the team.

Virgin also brought back a respected and experienced figure to the paddocks in the person of Ian Phillips. He had left Force India last March after 19 years with the structure founded by Eddie Jordan. He will now hold the position of Head of Operations at Virgin.

With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr