"Virgin - who have grown up out of Manor Motorsport - are a nice team. Everyone wants to see them doing well, and I for one want to see them in 12 months from now still on the grid.

"I don't think all the new teams will manage that, but I think Virgin will.

"However, I am very concerned about technical chief Nick Wirth's unwillingness to put their car into a wind tunnel as part of the design process.

"He is very bullish about computational fluid dynamics (CFD), but I think in terms of trying to figure out about twist and yaw and pitch and many other things, a wind tunnel can help you and save time.

"It's beyond me why the team are so intransigent on not wishing to pursue, or haven't pursued, that avenue, and I think they would gain a lot in time, and understand the car and the handling of it better if they did."