At a time where there is growing speculation over the future of Minardi, with Red Bull tipped to purchase the Italian outfit and run it as Red Bull USA, it is believed that McLaren will enter a 'B' team in the 2007 Formula One World Championship.

It's understood that the Woking team is in advanced negotiations with Direxiv, a Japanese investment company currently involved with Clivio Piccione, Olivier Pla and Hiroki Yoshimoto in GP2, in addition to commitments in the Super GT Championship in Japan.

Although details are sketchy at this time, it's believed that Direxiv will enter the 2007 Formula One World Championship using 2006 McLarens and 'customer' Mercedes-Benz engines.

McLaren was previously said to be involved with a project involving John Byfield and Russell King, founders of Essentially Sport, Jenson Button's management company, which was supposed to result in another new team, Team Dubai F1. However, once it was made clear that the Maktoum family would not invest in the project, even though it gave permission for the team to be based in Dubai and run in the country's name, the whole thing fell apart and all that remains are a couple of press releases.

Interestingly, the Press Officer for Direxiv is Julia Wurz, wife of a certain F1 test and reserve driver.