No Announcement Yet, Says Minardi

Australian businessman Paul Stoddart hopes to buy Minardi but the struggling Italian Formula One team said on Wednesday an announcement on its future would not be made this week.

"Gian Carlo Minardi confirmed that negotiations are underway to secure the future of the team he founded in 1979, but...no formal announcement on the subject will be made this week," Minardi said in a statement.

"He stressed that stories purporting to reveal the purchase price of the team, as well as other details of its future arrangements, are completely inaccurate because no contract has yet been concluded."

The team, still to announce an engine supplier or drivers, had said little publicly about their future other than promising to be on the grid for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 4.

Stoddart, owner of the British-based European Aviation company, is an avid grand prix fan and has a collection of some 40 old Formula One cars which he still races.

He has confirmed his interest in Minardi in the past week, describing himself as Minardi's last chance.