Honda Chief Executive Nick Fry claims that there as many as a dozen serious offers for the Honda F1 team are being considered, with the Englishman claiming that at one stage there were as many as thirty various bidders looking at the Brackley outfit.

"It's looking very positive at the moment," said Fry in Birmingham this morning. "We had, as you might expect, a huge amount of interest at the start, probably well in excess of 30 groups came to us.

"We have now narrowed that down to something in the region of a dozen, and we're currently talking to Honda about what is the best bet for the future."

Naturally, Fry refuses to give any info on precisely who these twelve potential buyers are, but they certainly don't include Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, who, despite claims that he was on the verge of buying the team, and had even decided on his 2009 driver line-up, has gone public and said that he is not interested.

Honda has given until the end of this month for a potential buyer to be in place, after that it will pull the plug completely.

Naturally, the waiting is taking its toll on employees at Brackley, with one worker telling Pitpass: "All the hearsay and gossip is doing no good whatsoever as far as I am concerned, and possible buyers may be a little miffed, to say the least, when they find out their thunder has been stolen as they are about to make an announcement.

Worried that the media might harm talks, the employee added: "This does not help the 700 employees at base at all, and any further gossip should be put on the back burners until any factual press statement is released by the team itself!"

Hopefully, Mr Fry will take note.