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Honda: no ‘serious’ buyer yet

Honda Motor Company have said that there is no ‘serious’ buyer yet apparent for their F1 team. The Japanese marque’s CEO Takeo Fukui – soon to be replaced at the helm by Takanobu Ito – told Reuters that although many offers had been received, none had appealed to the Tokyo management sufficiently.

“There are various offers for the team but we have not seen any serious buyer yet,” Fukui was quoted as saying by Reuters. “We find the sale process difficult.”

The news comes after a weekend of reports that Bernie Ecclestone had offered the team a financial lifeline only to be turned down. The F1 supremo was reported by the News of the World to have offered the team a considerable sum in return for a stake in the team, but that team management Nick Fry and Ross Brawn had refused the offer.

The options for the team remain numerous, but a decision was expected today. Time for the team is running out if they intend to be race-ready for the first grand prix of the season in Melbourne at the end of March. The most likely choice remains Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. Branson has said that F1 needed modernisation before his company would consider entering it, but recent cost-cutting and environmentally-friendly moves will have made the sport a more enticing prospect for the British billionaire.

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