D’Ambrosio still working to outpace Glock

Jerome d’Ambrosio has admitted he is still working to get up to speed gainst his Virgin teammate.

2011 is the Belgian 25-year-old’s first season in formula one, and in the telling battle for grid position so far, the experienced German Timo Glock has been comfortably in charge.

"Clearly I still need to improve my Saturdays," d’Ambrosio told La Libre newspaper.

Glock made his F1 debut with Jordan in 2004, but he also raced with the top-budget Toyota team in 2008 and 2009 before moving to the start-up Virgin last season.

"His experience is the most prominent on stop and go tracks like Valencia, or Canada where there is little grip and braking is therefore difficult. I still have more to understand to get the last tenths in those conditions. But I’m not ashamed to say he was simply stronger," added d’Ambrosio.

He added: "What I’m thrilled about is that on race pace, I was consistently with his times."

There have been reports that Virgin is preparing to abandon the 2011 project in order to be much stronger next year, but d’Ambrosio insists there are "many things" the team is doing to be stronger this season.

"We do not want to end up with the red lantern," he said, referring to Virgin’s battle to avoid finishing the world championship in last place.