Timo Glock has denied he might throw in the towel, also playing down suggestions his patience with Virgin is running low.
Updates to the German’s MVR-02 car failed to work properly in Turkey, and he then did not even make the grid due to a gearbox failure that could not be fixed in time.
"Every weekend we seem to start at the beginning," Glock was quoted as saying in Istanbul by Die Welt newspaper.
"I somehow have the feeling that we could save all the test driving and just have a coffee instead," he added.
But in an interview with Sport1, Glock denied that his ’coffee’ comment was a stark criticism of the struggling team.
"It had nothing to do with the team," he insisted.
"I had told a journalist that it was difficult to understand why we had so many problems with the deterioration with the tyres, but the issue looked very different for the actual race," said Glock.
"I was commenting generally on the tyre situation, but it was neither a criticism of the team or of Pirelli. I read the (coffee) comment but it was never explained what I meant.
"That’s why I was surprised that it was portrayed so clumsily," explained Glock.
However, he does not hide the fact that he is disappointed, after joining the start-up team following Toyota’s withdrawal from formula one.
"I knew it would be a difficult first year but we all hoped to make a big step forward and we didn’t quite make it. We need to ask ourselves and understand why we are not on par with Lotus," said Glock.
As for whether he has considered throwing in the towel, the 29-year-old insisted: "No, never. We must keep going together as a team.
"It’s going to be difficult but we have to do all we can to come forward. That’s the only goal we can have at the moment."
Virgin will attempt to get to the bottom of its problems with the Turkey upgrade during a straightline test at the Idiada facility in Spain this weekend.