Brawn GP announces Virgin partnership

The Brawn GP Team today announced it has secured a partnership with Sir Richard Branson and the Virgin Group, which will be launched at the Melbourne Grand Prix this weekend.

The initial partnership for the 2009 season brings together the technical brilliance of Ross Brawn and the marketing and business skills of Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Group.

This is Virgin’s first foray in to the world of Formula 1 and is the first step in what is planned to be a broader deal between the two.

The Brawn Grand Prix team will race the Virgin car for the first time at Melbourne, driven by Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello.

Sir Richard Branson said: ’I have always said I would love to have a Virgin car on the circuit. I am thrilled to be involved with people as skilled as Ross Brawn and his team. Over the years Virgin has had the great honour of partnering with technical geniuses – I truly believe Ross Brawn is to F1 what Burt Rutan is to space travel with Virgin Galactic. We are very confident that the Virgin Car driven by Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello will go from strength to strength this season and look forward to a great future for the Brawn GP team"

Ross Brawn said: “I am delighted to have signed this partnership with Sir Richard and Virgin. We believe we will form a world beating team.”