Whilst he might salivate at the very thought of being able to hand Nick Fry his P45, David Richards has admitted that he is in no rush to make a bid for Honda.

Though the exact story has never been made fully public, it is well known that Richards has never forgiven Fry, a former employee at Prodrive, for events at the end of 2004 which him dumped following Honda's purchase of BAR. The Brackley outfit had just enjoyed its best ever season, and under Richards' leadership finished second in the championship. Nonetheless, in a shock move, Honda ousted the Englishman in favour of Fry.

As soon as the 'for sale' notice went up at Brackley last Friday it was inevitable that Richards and his Prodrive outfit would be mentioned as potential buyers, not merely in respect of his previous connection with the team but also the fact that he had been scheduled to enter F1 with his own outfit this year, having secured the twelfth entry on the F1 grid.

However, as speculation mounts, Richards is clearly taking a softly-softly approach.

"I'm not rushing in blindly and saying absolutely this is something I've got to do," he told Reuters. "I want to know all the facts. I want to know the exact lie of the land before I commit myself to anything.

"It's not just about buying it," he continued. "The real issue is to make sure that you have the resources and the wherewithal to sustain it for the foreseeable future."

It is widely thought that in the current financial climate, only Arab, or perhaps Russian, sources could come up with the sort of funding needed to run a midfield Formula One team. Richards has strong Kuwaiti backing, having previously sold 40 percent of Prodrive to The Investment Dar company.