Billionaire Brit Richard Branson has unveiled Virgin Racing and promised to make Formula One racing “sexier”.

"What I discovered last year is a billion people watch F1 - and they are mostly fanatical. The Virgin brand is maybe one of the world's top 20 brands and for us to be involved in F1 is good for the brand. F1's a sexy beast and we hope we're going to make it a little bit sexier. It's fun, exciting - those attributes apply to the Virgin brand," The Sun quoted Branson, as saying.

Virgin sponsored Brawn GP last term as they roared to driver and team success. The brand has already boosted Manor GP with the team announcing 10 sponsors - and more to come for the new season. They will work on the smallest budget of the 13 outfits at £40 million.