Motor Sport:Richard Branson's love of Formula One today resulted in one of the world's richest men throwing the full weight of the Virgin brand behind one of the sport's new teams.
Manor GP, one of four new marques who will help make up an expanded 13-team grid for next season, have been rebranded Virgin Racing thanks to a multi-million pound sponsorship deal with Branson.
Tycoon Branson confirmed one of F1’s worst-kept secrets at a press conference in Notting Hill, London.
Explaining his latest venture, Branson said: “Our first year in F1 (with Brawn GP) was tremendous for the Virgin brand, so why not go in again with a new team from scratch?
“If you look at the history of Virgin we’ve loved supporting technical breakthroughs, great engineers, and there’s something like 120 engineers working away on this project.”
Branson confirmed Virgin Racing will operate on the smallest budget of any of the new teams, under €45 million.