Branson: Virgin could be team name

Richard Branson has revealed that his Virgin Group’s sponsorship of Brawn GP could soon include the brand taking over the naming rights of the team.
The expected tie-up between Virgin and Ross Brawn’s new squad was announced in the Albert Park paddock on Saturday, with both parties anticipating that the tie-up will develop into a “broader relationship” in the coming weeks.
Speaking to journalists after the announcement, Branson revealed details of how the tie-up could quickly move forwards – with Virgin replacing Brawn as the name of the former Honda Racing outfit an option under consideration.
“It’s a possibility, we’ll see what happens over the next three or four weeks,” he said.
“The team don’t want to waste the name of the team on something that is not promoting anything.
“Everyone knows that it has a great engineer, the team doesn’t need to be named after an engineer and that may well change."
And asked if he agreed that any such move would necessitate a long-term commitment to the sport from Virgin, Branson replied: “If it happened we’d be committed for a long time.”
Branson flew into Melbourne on Friday to seal the deal with Brawn, with the Virgin logos immediately on the car in Saturday afternoon's final practice and qualifying sessions.
And after the agreement was reached just hours before he boarded the plane, Branson said more time would be needed to flesh out the full scope of the sponsorship deal – but that he was confident it would be quickly established.
“We all need more time,” he said.
“We are a Virgin bride and someone else may come in and offer something even better before this bride marries them.
“But I’m sure we will get something together.”
Branson was initially rumoured to be considering buying the former Honda outfit outright last month, but said he wouldn’t bring Virgin into the sport until it became both cheaper and greener.
However, with FOTA confident of slashing budgets by 50% and the FIA planning on introducing an optional budget cap to entice new teams into F1 by 2010, Branson believes the time is right for Virgin to enjoy a successful relationship with Brawn.
“I’ve enjoyed it [F1] for years and in past got tempted but it’s been such an expensive sport,” he said.
“But the recession has been bringing the cost of entry down to a more reasonable level and the new rules that are coming out to encourage new teams to come in for more sensible amounts of money will make it a more exciting sport.
“When the Honda team got into trouble and it looked like a possibility of it disappearing altogether we spoke with Honda.
“I think we’ve ended up with the best of all worlds with a fantastic engineer and a great brand like Virgin.
“It’s something which could develop into something exciting in the years to come.”