In the wake of reports that an American-Qatar consortium, led by RSE Ventures, the company founded by billionaire Stephen Ross, and even claims that Sky could make a bid, CVC's co-chairman Donald Mackenzie insists there is no pressure, indeed no need to sell its stake in F1.

"We have twelve year funds, which we have to return the original money," he told Reuters. "We have already done that. So the pressure's off.

"We like owning it," he continued, "we don't want to sell it. There are always some people who'd like to buy it, it's a very good business."

Asked whether there is a deadline by which time CVC has to sell its stake, Mackenzie said: "No, we don't. There is no end date."

In a separate interview, Bernie Ecclestone not only backed up Mackenzie's comments but suggested that he might yet buy back the sport himself.

"Donald Mackenzie doesn't want to sell, simple as that," he told Reuters. "He loves Formula One, loves the business.

"Whether he will invest himself, maybe with me separately, we will have to wait and see," he added.

However, asked whether he would join a consortium of teams in a buy out, he snapped: "Not those people."

Having twice attempted to float F1, CVC subsequently sold stakes to the US investment groups BlackRock and Waddell & Reed, as well as Norway's Norges Bank.

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