One of the most-asked questions behind the scenes in F1 when it comes to team finances is just how much of Virgin Racing does Richard Branson's company own and how much money has it invested in it. Thanks to an article in the Express by Pitpass' business editor Chris Sylt we are now closer to knowing the answer to both of these questions and it doesn't make pleasant reading for UK taxpayers.

The team is directly run by the Manor Grand Prix Racing company which is named after the F3 outfit of John Booth who originally applied for the F1 slot. As of 1 August 2009 a UK company called Manor Top LLP held 46.1% of Manor Grand Prix Racing with 48% in the hands of another UK company WR Energia and the remaining 5.9% owned by Isle of Man-based Astra 100.

However, before these companies filed documents to show who owned them, Manor Grand Prix Racing was taken over by another UK company, Manor Holdco, which is now its ultimate parent. This has yet to file documents showing who owns it but at least a little light has been shed.

Manor Holdco has confirmed in official filings that an investment agreement in the company was signed by, amongst others, WR Energia, Manor Top, Astra 100, Lloyds TSB Development Capital, a British Virgin Islands company called Corvina Holdings and Alex Tai - the former chief executive of Virgin's space flight division.

The same filings indicate that WR Energia is ultimately owned by the team's designer Nick Wirth (with the WR presumably standing for Wirth Research). Likewise they indicate that Tai ultimately owns Astra 100 with Manor Top ultimately owned by Booth and Virgin Racing's chief executive Graeme Lowdon. Corvina owns Virgin Enterprises, the team's title partner, so this indicates that Branson's business does indeed own a stake in the F1 outfit.

This would give Virgin Racing at least the following shareholders: John Booth, Lloyds, Graeme Lowdon, Alex Tai, Nick Wirth and Virgin itself.

It seems remarkably ironic that a team which has performed miserably and is currently last in the championship with no points has such a convoluted ownership structure. One wonders what exactly its owners hope to gain from this.

The filings yield two other crucial pieces of information. Firstly, during 2009 Virgin Holdings gave a £1.4m loan to Manor Holdco and secondly, the team was also lent a further £6.7m by Lloyds Development Capital (LDC), the private equity unit of the bank which is 43% owned by the UK taxpayer. The loans came just at the right time as the team was starting up and it sure burnt through a lot of money.

According to Manor Grand Prix Racing's accounts, the team paid £8.9m to Wirth for the design of the car during the year ending 31 December 2009 and this left it with a £1.3m pre-tax loss. At this rate it will be a long time before the UK public gets its money back on the loan.

Wirth of course took a big gamble by creating the car entirely using computer simulations rather than by testing physical models as all the other teams do. Despite the bumper payment for his services he made a gigantic gaffe by building a car with a fuel tank that was so small it could not even finish most of the first five races.

The team will need to make a huge turnaround to rectify the damage done… let's hope that the taxpayer doesn't end up footing the bill.