Virgin is on the verge of buying a stake in the newly-created Manor F1 Team, according to a leaked e-mail sent by the FIA's Alan Donnelly. Virgin currently sponsors championship-leaders Brawn GP for a rumoured £250,000 per race, but the team's success has forced Virgin CEO Richard Branson to look elsewhere for 2010 due to the inflated price being placed on Brawn's sponsorship.

“Virgin have signed to be investment partners with a share holding of around 20%,” Donnelly wrote in the leaked e-mail, published in The Guardian newspaper.

Donnelly's position as chief of the stewards at Grand Prix weekends has already been questioned by the teams after being involved in Manor's F1 bid, arguing that a conflict of interest exists between his FIA duties and connections with one of F1's newest teams. Donnelly's involvement, if any, in the Virgin deal with Manor is expected to anger teams even further.