Ever since it burst on to the scenes with Richard Branson and an arm or two full of Virgin girls I've had something of a soft spot for the team which carried the billionaires' legendary company moniker. The frustrated engineer in me admired and marvelled at the digital-only approach; the accountant in me was tempted by the cost saving potential; the journalist in me has never really understood any of it.

And that's the problem. Two years into its life and the team is still a mystery. The teams around it have shown clear direction, or have shown some sort of progression, but not Virgin. It has been cemented to the rear of the grid, battling the likes of Hispania, and that is just plain wrong.

The team developed a new car for 2011, it tested that new car - both of those things are advantages over its Spanish rival - yet it's not been enough, has it? I know full well that if I look John Booth in the eye he'll admit that it's not, and perhaps that's why I like the team. It's trying, it just isn't succeeding, and it's always a nice story when the underdog succeeds.

Why isn't it succeeding, or even making progress? Part of the reason was the Nick Wirth led digital-only approach. At the tail end of last season I sat down with Wirth and discussed the benefits of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and he spoke enthusiastically of its potential. That may still be there waiting to be unlocked or perhaps waiting for the technology but Virgin can't wait any longer. It's been chaste for too long - it craves success, it needs it if it's to survive, and so Wirth parted ways with the team after the Monaco Grand Prix. It was not the first time he's left the sport, the ill-fated Simtek team never reappeared after the Monaco race in 1995. Ironic, really.

That announcement back in May was a statement for the future then. It was admission that Virgin Racing has fallen well short of the expectation that not only the world had of it, but which it had of itself. Probably, more to the point, it was an admission that the expectations in Russia weren't being met, considering the team had taken on more investment from the Marussia car company at the tail end of 2010. So much so that come 2012 there will be no Virgin Racing as it becomes known simply as Marussia.

In reality the 2011 season was more about survival than anything else. Once Wirth had gone focus, perhaps rightly so, turned to 2012. The 2011 season was a write off, more or less, with the car bereft of downforce and the drivers doing their all for scant reward.

Neither driver had even the remotest hope of producing a notable result, though if one wanted to be especially harsh it could be argued that both failed to take advantage of the conditions in Canada - Hispania claimed thirteenth spot on that sodden Sunday in Montreal, enough to secure the team the all-important eleventh place in the final championship standings, and leaving Virgin splashing about with David Coulthard's red-shouldered blackbirds.