Glock: “Virgin's choice to remove Nick Wirth is right”

Timo Glock has supported the Virgin team's decision to end the collaboration with Wirth Research.

The ex-Toyota driver, who has competed for Virgin since joining Formula 1 in 2010 but has never finished higher than 14th in 25 races since driving for Virgin, believes the end of the partnership with former technical director Nick Wirth after the Monaco Grand Prix will allow the team to progress in the long term.

“It's the right move,” Glock said. “We all want to move forward and the team wasn't happy with the performance of the car, so they made this decision.”

“A change like this is never easy, but we had to move forward and in the long run it will be very positive.”

Virgin is currently working on having its own design and development department, with consultancy oversight from Pat Symonds.

However, the latest updates from Wirth will arrive during the next races. Glock believes the team must now prioritize development work on the car for 2012, with the remainder of this season working on ideas for the new MVR-03 car where possible.

“Next year is the main focus,” Glock said. “We know we can't find three seconds in a couple of months, but this year becomes the transition point for 2012. We have to try to improve this year and focus on next year.”

“The rest of the season will be good for us. We went through difficult times last year and at the beginning of this year. We have shown that we can overcome them. We have a good base, so it shouldn't be a problem."

Glock hopes that the new technical structure will allow the race team to have greater influence in the direction of the car's development. Previously, Wirth Research was responsible for designing the car and delivering the upgrades.

“I think it will be much easier for us,” Glock told Autosport. “Now we are able to make decisions even faster in terms of development for the future. The engineers on the track will let them know what the car needs and so they can do it directly.”

“The team has what it needs for the future, but it just takes time. We've done everything right from last year to this year, in terms of race team structure, making the right changes and putting the right people in the right places. This paid off. We can still improve, but this is one of the team's strong points."