SJB Classic Article - Ex Marussia/Virgin F1 Cars For Sale
Originally Posted on SJB Supercars - http://www.sjbsupercars.com/single-post/2016/1/26/Ex-MarussiaVirgin-F1-Cars-For-Sale
January 26, 2016 | Sean Smith
The Manor F1 Team, formally known as Marussia and Virgin Racing are putting up for sale their 2010-13 F1 cars. Sean Smith looks into what’s on offer.
For the price of a Ferrari road car or a small house in the South East of England you could own a Formula 1 racer as seen on TV. Or at least that’s what the projected prices say of the 2010-13 Virgin/Marussia F1 cars which will be sold as either individual pieces or a collection to whoever wishes to put in a prospective bid.
It has been well documented since the 3 new F1 teams of Hispania (HRT), Lotus (Caterham) and Virgin (Marussia > Manor) were announced to partake in the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship were rather cash strapped. It would now seem that the Manor F1 team are looking to prize a few more pennies into their cash-pot for the upcoming season as all bar their 2014/15 cars are for sale right now.
Any and all interested buyers will have to register their interest and put in a blind offer to the auctioneer (John Pye Auctions) to which the highest bidder will receive their “slightly used” prize.
To recount what’s on offer here’s a quick history of the cars:
2010 Virgin Racing VR01 Cosworth – Projected Price – £150,000
The 2010 Virgin car was by all accounts a bad car by that year’s F1 standards. Although it held the pride of being the first ever fully CFD designed car it came last in the championship and was famous for originally not being able to hold the fuel capacity needed to complete a whole race. The car was very unreliable retiring 15 times between both drivers over the course of season and it was at best only equal to the Dallara built Hispania, which operated on an even smaller budget. Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi were the drivers.
2011 Virgin Racing MVR02 Cosworth – Projected Price – £150,000
The 2011 Virgin was faster than its predecessor, but it still finished last in the championship behind a basically unchanged Hispania and the Lotus of that year. It was also designed via CFD and was the first car to carry the Marussia badge on its body as the Russian company bought a stake in the team. The car was a lot more reliable with 7 retirements but the struggles with the team splitting with designer Nick Wirth and the Virgin brand through the course of the year meant the team wasn’t ever really on the pace of the Lotus or often the Hispania. Timo Glock and Jérôme d'Ambrosio were the drivers.
2012 Marussia MR01 Cosworth – Projected Price – £150,000
In 2012 Marussia formally entered as the team running the Manor operation. The car used the same V8 Cosworth engine as the previous cars did and was one of the few F1 cars that year not to sport a “Stepped” nose. The car was not fully CFD designed, instead using a mix of it along with wind tunnel backing like all other F1 teams do. The car had a troubled birth by failing its crash test late on thereby not having any testing pre-season, but it did qualify for the first race unlike the now 3 year old HRT (Hispania) Dallara cars. The car only had 6 official retirements and finally managed to beat HRT to 11th place in the championship standings but lost to Caterham in the last race. Timo Glock raced his last season in F1 for the team and Charles Pic was the other driver.
2013 Marussia MR02 Cosworth – Projected Price – £200,000
The final car on offer is the 2013 Marussia MR02. This car was the first nail in the Caterham team’s coffin as for the first time the team finished in the top 10 of the championship thereby qualifying for prize money. The car was the last one to use a Cosworth engine as they were to leave the sport at the end of the year and by all accounts the car wasn’t bad. It failed to score any points but it only retired 3 times over the course of the season, all for the late Jules Bianchi. In my opinion it’s by far and away the best looking of the four cars for sale and if I was going to be an interested buyer it’s the one I personally would bid for. The drivers were Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton.
I would be surprised if these cars don’t go for less than £250,000 each but if anyone is in the market we may find out what they go for soon. Hopefully the cars will each go to good homes and hopefully be raced in anger again in some forms.
Tell us what you think of the “Manor” car sale, will you be one of the potential buyers, get in touch with us via Facebook, search SJB Supercars or Twitter @SJBSupercars.
(All images courtesy of f1fanatic.co.uk – please click on the pictures for original sources)
