Westwood Racing Technology finally pulled back the covers on their 2022 car today, and the rumours of big change were certainly proven true. In a big event, the Bolton based team had a long tell-all of what they had been working on over the winter. Team Principal Harry Westwood was beaming from ear to ear as they gave this speech on stage while two cars lay under wraps. The first was flanked by Tumo Kinnumen and Jochem Van Snelheid, while the second had Jules Barclay and Dominykas Zvironas either side of it. HW: "It's such a pleasure to be here in front of you all today. Last year was a hard year for us here at the Westwood factory, and it certainly put a lot of things into perspective. However, this year we are having something of a hard reset - but I'll get more into that later. Firstly, I'd like to deeply thank Porsche for all the work we've done together. It's been a privilege to work with a name that represents such pedigree, and I'm sure they'll keep doing a top quality job in Formula Virtual. But today I can confirm we have parted ways, and we are moving onto a new era. And with that I'd like to introduce Jean-Pierre Polnareff, the Director of Virtual Motorsport for Peugeot Sport!" JPP: "Merci, merci. We are so pleased to have the chance to be involved with this fantastic series again. Obviously we are no strangers in this discipline, having seen previous success with race wins. As a manufacturer that already knows what it takes to make an excellent power unit, we are eager to push for perfection in the virtual world again. The opportunity to be powering one of the most recognizable teams on the grid going forward is exciting for everyone involved, and is the kind of long term project we've been searching for for some time. Our partnership with Westwood obviously began outside of Formula Virtual, with our prototypes running in the most recent Virtual Twenty Four Hours. For that to have so quickly evolved into the project we're working on going forward is a sign of the ambition of both parties involved, and on our end, the PSE9X22. You also might notice the little joke on the rear wing! I owe a beer to the Westwood design team - it's great to see that there's already a sense of camaraderie between Peugeot and Westwood both in the real and virtual world." HW: "Thankyou Jean-Pierre, and I agree that it is a very exciting opportunity; I for one can't wait to see where it takes us. But! It's time we gave you all what you came here for. Tumo, Jules, Jochem, Dominykas, would you do the honor's?" HW: "Well folks, this is what we will be going racing with! As you may have easily spotted, we are also proud to announce a new sponsorship with Red Bull! They're such a presence to have in any form of motorsport, and it's a privilege to have them onboard! As for the livery and design, it is very different to last season. As I mentioned earlier, we had a tough go of things in 2021. We wanted to be innovative with our design which lead to some unconventional, aggressive choices when shaping our package for the year.
We realized very early on that this new philosophy was not suited to the way we operate a race car - but if we hadn't tried something different we'd have never known. This year however it's back to basics! We've done away with the complex duct system, reverted to a conventional front wing design, and given ourselves a car with lots of room and options for development and growth. I'm immensely proud of the team for their work last season and over the winter, especially getting the car ready for a totally different power unit with short notice. In terms of visuals, we put a lot of effort into showing that we're still Westwood at our core, but we really wanted to merge Peugeot and Red Bull into that image. As well as this, we're proud to show off our partnership with The University of Bolton, who are doing amazing work and producing honestly not only fantastic graduates but doing excellent work taking their own cars to grassroots racing series. We hope that by providing this support through partnership with them we are inspiring a whole generation of engineers to be the best they can be, and providing them every opportunity to do so. So that is the Westwood car for this season! We hope you love it as much as we do, and we can't wait to see it out on track. Thankyou all for coming. Please enjoy the festivities and of course, the snacks and booze!"
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