team.
Richard Branson, who has long been linked to the bew BRAWNGP team has announced a substantial sponsorship deal earlier today at the Australian Grand Prix.
"Virgin are trying to build the most respected brand in the world and an involvement with a great team will help that," Branson added. Today, the Virgin logo was added to the car and a new colour scheme will be unveiled at the Malaysian Grand Prix.
As part of the deal, the car will be renamed the Virgin BGP 001.
Branson explains his change of heart on F1 sponsorship:
"Bernie Ecclestone has announced new entrants will be able to get into F1 at a much lower cost,"
"That will encourage a lot of new companies to get involved with the sport and make it much more exciting.
"Those financial costs are less than they were a year or two ago, but so it should be because the world is in a very different state compared to then.
"The sport will benefit from the costs coming down, right across the board, and with engineers using their skills rather than the teams using a cheque book in the future to produce great cars.
"As far as 'clean' fuel is concerned, we have invested quite a considerable sum of money in a company called Gevo (an American firm involved in next generation bio-fuels).
"One of the tasks they have had is to see if they can come up with a fuel for F1 that is clean, doesn't emit any carbon, and can perform as well as the dirty fuels used in cars to date.
"I'm delighted to say they have come up with such a fuel.
Branson added: "I have always said I would love for Virgin to be involved in F1 and I am thrilled that we will be entering this fantastic sport with people as skilled as Ross Brawn and the Brawn GP team.
"Over the years Virgin has had the great honour of partnering with technical geniuses and I truly believe that Ross Brawn is to F1 what Burt Rutan is to space travel with Virgin Galactic.
"We are confident that the Virgin BGP 001 car driven by Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello will go from strength to strength this season and we look forward to a great future working with the Brawn GP team."
