Richard Branson, the boss of the Virgin Group, is due to officially confirm his company's rebranding of the Manor GP team on Wednesday.

Virgin's involvement with the new Manor outfit has been rumoured for some time, and was effectively announced by the FIA when it released the 2010 Formula 1 entry list on Monday evening.

Rather than listing the team as Manor GP, as it had been originally entered, the team was listed as 'Virgin Racing' with the cars called ‘Virgin Cosworth'.

Although there has not yet been any official statement from either Manor or Virgin about the deal yet, a story on Virgin Media's website on Tuesday night said an announcement would be made imminently.

It stated: "Manor boss John Booth and Virgin supremo Richard Branson are due to announce the long-awaited sponsorship tie-up tomorrow."

As well as its sponsorship involvement and rebranding of the team, it is understood that Alex Tai, who heads special projects at Virgin, will take a senior role at the F1 team.

Virgin entered F1 with a high-profile sponsorship deal with Brawn GP this year. Although there were discussions about expanding its presence at the team, perhaps even to become title sponsors, in the end Virgin decided to do a deal with Manor GP instead.