Richard Branson

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BARCELONA, Spain -- Virgin Racing owner Richard Branson believes Formula One needs new teams despite recent criticism over whether the rookies will make the season-opening race in Bahrain.

Branson expects Virgin to eventually give Ferrari, which has been critical of F1's decision to allow four new teams onto the grid, "a run for their money."

"Ferrari should be welcoming new teams because they make the sport much more exciting," Branson said on Saturday at the Circuit de Catalunya, where preseason testing was wrapping up.

"And we will make them look better for a year or two until we catch them up. I think the new teams will give Ferrari a run for their money and I think will make the sport more exciting."

Branson believes Virgin, which alongside fellow rookie Lotus is testing in Barcelona this weekend, will show a private team on a smaller budget can compete. Campos Meta and USF1 are also hoping to reach the March 14 opener, although the latter two have not appeared at any of the test sessions and are pushing to make the starting grid.

"Once the budgets for the established teams come down ... then we will see a much more equal playing field," Branson said.

Seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher said the new teams were doing "quite reasonable" even though the British team had been wracked by reliability issues at each of the test sessions. Still, Virgin has generally been faster than Lotus so far.

"I have seen new teams come into Formula One and I have seen gaps of more than five to six-seconds. Here, we probably see two to three seconds," Schumacher said. "For teams that start up completely from scratch I think they are doing a very good job."

Branson preferred to build a new team than continue working with last year's championship winner Brawn GP, which was eventually bought out by Mercedes.

"We are not used to writing out big checks for successful, established companies. We like to start things from scratch," Branson said. "We have created 200-300 new jobs, we have new technology, a new team with Virgin branding. It is much more exciting that way."