Newcomers Virgin are out to show that teams don't need to spend a large fortune to achieve success in Formula One.
Team owner Richard Branson, speaking at the final session of pre-season testing here on Saturday, explained: "I think the one thing the Virgin team will prove is that you can have a really good racing team, running very fast, within a very tight budget.
"There is no need to do massively expensive wind tunnel testing, or all the other things that they do to get the extra second or two."
Branson added: "It will show the other F1 teams that they could reduce their budgets to the 40 million pound cap that was planned for this year but has been delayed. And have just as much fun.
"You don't need to spend hundreds of millions to have fun. You can do it within a cap of 40 million and people can have just as much fun, and it will be just as exciting out there on the grid."
Virgin's drivers Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi failed to make much of an imprint on the established teams in testing here this week, coming in around five seconds shy of the best times.
But Branson remarked: "Give it a year or two. You cannot just build a new team from scratch and immediately start beating Ferrari that has spent 400 million on a car, whereas Virgin has spent less than 40 million.
"Ultimately, I think the new teams will give Ferrari a run for their money and I think will make the sport more exciting, particularly as the budgets come down to more realistic levels."
The 2010 season gets underway in Bahrain on March 14.
Copyright 2010 AFP Global Edition
