The way some reporters have covered News Corp's hypothetical bid for F1 it wouldn't be a surprise if readers thought that Rupert Murdoch's media company had bought the sport. In fact, the statement issued by News Corp and its partner, the Exor investment fund, said that even though they are considering whether to bid for F1, "there can be no certainty that this will lead to an approach to Formula One's current owners." That's how tenuous this is - we aren't even talking about the possibility of a bid being accepted by F1's owners CVC but instead whether a bid will be made at all. All the powers that be - CVC, F1's boss Bernie Ecclestone and FIA president Jean Todt - have confirmed is that F1 is not for sale and Ecclestone now says it is time for News Corp to put up or shut up.

Over lunch with Pitpass' business editor Chris Sylt and former Renault F1 team principal Flavio Briatore, Ecclestone suggested that Mark Kleinman, the Sky News journalist who originally linked News Corp to an F1 bid, should get confirmation from the company that it is in a position to buy F1. "Why don't you call [Kleinman] and ask him if News Corp is prepared to put out an announcement to say they wish to buy," Ecclestone said to Sylt. "They just need to come out and say we are in a position where we wish to buy Formula One and we wish to make an agreement with CVC," added the F1 boss.

Even if News Corp were to say that they "wish to make an agreement with CVC," there wouldn't seem to be much point in doing so since CVC has said F1 is not for sale. Nevertheless, as every day goes by without News Corp making a formal bid for F1, the more suspicious the media and business analysts will get that it is ever going to do so.

Perhaps Sky News will next come up with reports about other investors who have joined Exor and News Corp in their bid to maybe never bid for F1. However, as time goes by the media will soon tire and realise that it is nothing but froth unless the investors put their money where their mouth is and bid for F1 just as Ecclestone suggests. This could be quite tough for them to do if they are well aware, as Pitpass has suggested, that the EC would block a takeover because it would give News Corp a position of dominance. If so it simply wouldn't be worth their while to even spend the money or time on making a bid. Releasing a heavily caveated press statement however costs nothing.

As Pitpass has already revealed, Ecclestone believes that News Corp could be using the cover of a possible bid for F1 to secure investors to help it buy 61% of broadcaster BSkyB. Likewise, since Exor ultimately owns a stake in Ferrari, the possibility that it may bid for F1 could give its team some leverage in the ongoing negotiations with Ecclestone about a new Concorde Agreement. Bearing in mind that the concept of a rival series would be ridiculed after the teams' previous attempt laughably only lasted for six days, this is perhaps the best kind of leverage that the teams could muster.

So it could well be useful to News Corp and Exor that the two companies have been publicly connected to an F1 bid even if it never comes to anything. Sylt is completely confident that majority control of F1 will not be sold to News Corp in the next five years not least due to the regulatory hurdles.

Unless News Corp does indeed make a formal bid for F1 in the next few months confidence in the F1 news reported by Sky News is likely to take a battering. It would be through no fault of Kleinman however, since he completely accurately reported the Exor and News Corp statement which told the world that they may never make a bid.

However, as we reported at the start of this article, on reading some of the reports about this you could be forgiven for thinking that the sport had been sold already. It most certainly has not.