It has emerged that
Super Aguri has just three days left to secure its future in
Formula 1, after an expected investor pulled away its backing on the eve of the multi-million pound agreement that was expected to save the team.
It was revealed yesterday (Wednesday) that Dubai International Capital, the backers behind investment company Magma Group – which had offered the Japanese minnows an eleventh hour lifeline ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix by agreeing to purchase the team – had pulled the plug on the buy-out, leaving Super Aguri on the brink of collapse [see separate story –
click here].
The Leafield-based outfit has received a letter from the company stating that its financial backers no longer wish to fund the deal, leaving team principal Aguri Suzuki once more constrained to look elsewhere for potential saviours.
Far from suggesting that the team will merely be forced to miss the Spanish Grand Prix at the end of this month, however, it has now been suggested that the body blow may lead to Super Aguri having to close its doors altogether.
“We have exactly three days to find an alternate solution,” a team insider told German magazine
Auto Motor und Sport, after Super Aguri was again forced to miss
F1 testing in Barcelona this week. “If we do not find the money, we cannot race.”
The three-day deadline is believed to refer to the amount of time that would be needed for the team's transporters to leave its Oxfordshire headquarters to head to the Circuit de Catalunya for the Spanish Grand Prix on 27 April.
The ailing concern is now looking to parent company
Honda once more, as well as F1 supremo
Bernie Ecclestone, whilst
Grand Prix Magazine hints that there are possible signs of interest from both Germany and America.
