Formula 1

Virgin Eyes Silverstone Base, HRT Eyes Sala

By: GMM

GMM

Published: Jul 9, 2011, 11:06 AM

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Jerome d'Ambrosio, Test Driver, Virgin Racing and John Booth, Virgin Racing Sporting Director

F1's struggling teams Virgin and HRT are making plans for the future.

Jerome d'Ambrosio, Test Driver, Virgin Racing and John Booth, Virgin Racing Sporting Director

Photo by: xpb.cc

At Virgin, now working with ousted Renault engineer Pat Symonds and McLaren, there are also plans for a new bespoke factory, and the big rumour is that it could be built at Silverstone.

The Daily Mail reports that meetings with Silverstone circuit chiefs are taking place this weekend.

Team boss John Booth insists he doesn't regret taking his F3 team Manor into F1 despite the struggle as Virgin Racing so far.

"You had manufacturers like Toyota spending 700 million a year with 1500 employees so it was so far on another planet it did not cross my mind.

"Then this opportunity came up and we would never have forgiven ourselves if we had not taken it," he is quoted by the Daily Express.

Next door at Hispania, former Spanish F1 driver Luis Perez Sala was in the garage on Friday and AS newspaper reports that he could be signing up as a team chief.

Now 52, Sala contested 30 races in the late 80s for Minardi.

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