F1: Virgin Founder Booth Wants ‘Respect’

Formula 1

F1: Virgin Founder Booth Wants ‘Respect’

Virgin Racing founder John Booth says his ambition is to earn the respect of rivals during the team’s first season in 2010...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted December 15, 2009 Notting Hill (ENG)

Longtime Manor Grand Prix chief John Booth was introduced as the sporting director for Virgin Racing Tuesday. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Virgin Racing founder John Booth says his ambition is to earn the respect of rivals during the team’s first season in 2010.

Booth was a successful Formula Ford racer in the eighties, competing against the likes of Ayrton Senna, Damon Hill and Eddie Irvine, although he never had any aspirations to go any further. He instead became a team owner, initially in Formula Renault and then F3, under the Manor name. His past drivers have included Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton.

The Manor Grand Prix name appears to have all but disappeared under the new Virgin identity, and Booth has the role of sporting director rather than team principal. However he’ll clearly have a role to play.

“In 2010 my idea of success is to run reliably, safely and efficiently and earn the respect of our peers in the paddock,” he said. “We need to perform well as a team. Then we can start carrying that through into car performance. Our clear objective is to end the season as the best of the new teams.

“I’ve never had any ambitions to be in Formula 1, purely because it was so out of reach. The FIA in their wisdom quite rightly decided to introduce some sort of cost restriction. At the same time as making Formula 1 more affordable for its current competitors, it opened up our own horizons and that of other teams.

“I think Nick [Wirth] is a design genius and I have absolute faith in his ability to design a fantastic car. In turn he has the belief in our ability to run it. There is already a great chemistry within the team and this is inspiring a lot of confidence. We’ve kept our heads down for the last few months and just got on with what we needed to do, but now people are starting to see what we are achieving.”

Photos: Virgin Racing Launch

Adam Cooper notched up his 25th season as a racing journalist in 2009. Born in London, England, he saw his first F1 race at age 10 in 1976. He began freelancing for Autosport magazine in 1985 and was on the fulltime staff from 1987-92. He then went freelance again, initially spending two years in Japan before following the 1994 Champcar series from a base in Indianapolis. He has not missed a Grand Prix since Suzuka ‘94, a run that has extended to Abu Dhabi ’09. Adam has written books about Eddie Irvine, Piers Courage and Michael Schumacher and hosts a race preview show on Sirius XM. He has written about F1 for SPEEDtv.com since 2005.