Virgin launch 2011 car in London

(GMM) Virgin on Monday became the tenth F1 team to reveal its 2011 car (See Home Page article).

The now partially Marussia-owned team launched the MVR-02 at the BBC television centre in London.

The car, with a notably lower nose than many of the other single seaters unveiled already this year, has once again been designed solely and uniquely with the aid of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) rather than a wind tunnel.

But rumors the MVR-02's exhaust outlets might be similar to Renault's radical front-exiting solution proved wide of the mark.

Also on Monday, Gary Paffett gave McLaren's 2011 car, the MP4-26, its debut for filming purposes near Barcelona.

The Briton's real work will begin on Tuesday with a shakedown at the Idiada Proving Ground, ahead of the car's proper circuit debut at Jerez on Thursday.