Like fellow new team Lotus, Virgin is also not planning to develop a so-called F-duct system in 2010.

Confirming the news, Lotus’ Heikki Kovalainen said in Barcelona last weekend that he hopes the team soon shifts its full focus to next year’s car.

F-ducts, the downforce-spoiling innovation pioneered this year by McLaren and subsequently emulated by Ferrari, Sauber and Williams, have been banned for 2011.

German driver Timo Glock told Auto Motor und Sport on Thursday that it would therefore be “nonsense” if Virgin “invested time” on an F-duct rather than on more fundamental areas.

And team boss John Booth also said in Monaco that Virgin’s priorities are elsewhere.

“99 per cent of our effort is on reliability but hopefully from this race forward we can start adding performance to the car,” he said.

McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh admitted this week that he is disappointed with FOTA’s decision to ban F-ducts.

“It’s a low-cost technology.  There are lots of reasons why it’s good for the sport,” said the FOTA chairman, whose MP4-25 is the only car fitted with an F-duct for the twisty curves of Monaco.

Ferrari’s F-duct will be back on the F10 at Istanbul, where it is expected that Red Bull could get the technology running for the first time.

Whitmarsh said on Thursday: “It’s something that will work better on the long straight than a circuit like this.”

(GMM)