Not for the first time, Nick Wirth has exited the Formula One paddock stage left. After the Monaco Grand Prix, Virgin Racing announced it had parted company with Wirth, and his company Wirth Research, ending his latest tenure in the sport.

A disappointing start to the 2011 campaign has been largely attributed to the MVR-02, Wirth Research's latest Formula One creation. Lacking downforce, the team has remained nailed to the back end of the field when it had hoped to become a genuine midfield contender in its second season. The reality is the team has stood still while the rest of the field has moved forward, a situation that's as good as going backwards in the highly competitive world of Formula One.

While publicly the team continued to support Wirth's unique digital-only approach the cracks began to appear even before the 2011 season started. In Melbourne Timo Glock was clearly frustrated as the competitive German dreaded the prospect of another season propping up the timing sheets. He wasn't scared to voice his opinion either, his words contrasting with the company line at the time.

"Nick and his crew are not that experienced compared with the other guys," he said. "We have to come to a point where, if we realise we're just not going in the right direction, we have to sit down together and get behind the problem and sort it."

"CFD's a proven tool and will be the future of all Formula One in years to come," argued Virgin's team boss John Booth. "Whether that's this year or five years I'm not sure but I'm sure that we're right."

At the same time Booth claimed CFD was the future he admitted that the new car was not up to the standard the team had hoped it would be. "Obviously we're still a long way down on pace, that's very disappointing," he said. "The quality of the car, don't get me wrong, is a big step but I don't think we have in performance."

Booth's comments were written off as a disappointed team boss who'd hoped for a new bike at Christmas and instead been given a woolly jumper. Yet in light of the Monaco announcement the Yorkshireman's words have taken on new light. It seems that even then the team was not as supportive of Wirth behind the scenes as it publicly made out, Timo Glock was simply one of the few prepared to tell it like it was.

At the opening round of the season there were real concerns that the Virgin cars simply wouldn't make the grade, falling foul of the 107% rule which was reintroduced as a way of weeding out uncompetitive backmarkers. Booth expressed concern yet remained hopeful that the team wouldn't end up with egg on its face. Of course, both cars qualified, albeit on the back row of the grid, and enjoyed unspectacular races, Jerome D'Ambrosio finishing four laps down while Glock limped across the line nine laps adrift and unclassified thanks to a loose wheel.

Since then the season has hardly improved. Glock didn't even start the Spanish Grand Prix while in China the Hispania of Vitantonio Liuzzi lapped faster than both Glock and D'Ambrosio. To rub salt into the wounds it was Hispania's second race, after it had failed to qualify for the opening round of the season. With a comparatively untried car Hispania was outpacing Virgin, which had enjoyed a winters worth of development.

Responsibility for the lack of performance has been laid squarely at Wirth's feet, with many citing the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach as a significant factor in the absence of pace. It's perhaps an overly simple explanation, as one is left to wonder just what Wirth Research would have developed if it had employed the standard wind tunnel development model in place at all other Formula One teams. The situation, one suspects, would hardly have been different. So while CFD may have been a contributing factor in Wirth's ultimate demise it would be unfair to credit it as the sole reason for the shake-up at Virgin.

Over the winter former Renault Technical Director Pat Symonds was brought in as a consultant. Still banned from taking a full time role within Formula One due to his part in the Crashgate saga of 2009, Symonds is allowed to take on a factory based consultancy role. It's been his job to examine the team's existing set up and identify areas where the operation can be improved. Symonds' arrival has conveniently coincided with Wirth's departure, and while it's impossible to say whether one of Symonds recommendations was to abandon the CFD approach it does create food for thought.

Another potential contributing factor is the Russian flavour the team now has thanks to part-owners Marussia. The Russian supercar company purchased a stake in the team at the end of 2010 and has openly confessed to wanting the team in a position to contend for a podium when the inaugural Russian Grand Prix takes place in 2014. The pressure is therefore on for the team to develop, and that's no mean feat; Red Bull took a couple of years before it became truly competitive, even then it had grown out of the ashes of Stewart/Jaguar rather than starting from scratch like Virgin Racing.

The announcement after the Monaco Grand Prix that Nick Wirth would be leaving Virgin Racing, and taking his computers with him, is therefore hardly surprising. Nearest rivals last year, Lotus, have taken a distinct step towards the midfield while even the shambolic Hispania Racing is beginning to show just how bad the MVR-02 car really is.