It’s the 15th December 2009 and this is F1Minute.

After Lotus’ announcement yesterday, it was time for Manor Grand Prix to take centre stage - officially confirming that they are now called Virgin Racing. With Timo Glock already on board, the team also announced Lucas di Grassi as their second driver. The Brazilian said: “It feels great to be here, it’s a dream come true for me after two years of being a test driver, and from that and from GP2 I feel I’m ready and am very confident in this team. We’re here to race, not to do politics or mess around. We’re here to race.” Easy to say, isn’t it?

The team are very optimistic, though, Richard Branson spoke at their event today in London and said: “This team will be the lowest budget team in F1... but money is not everything and we are determined to prove that through engineering prowess, great drivers and great affinity with the public, we can do well.”

That’s all for today, I’ll be back tomorrow for another F1Minute.