F1 'must change' before Virgin joins

The British businessman has been linked with a last-minute bid to bring Virgin into F1 with a buyout of Honda Racing - with F1 supreme Bernie Ecclestone saying the billionaire was 'keen' to come into the sport.

However, speaking to the BBC on Saturday morning, Branson made it clear that F1 had to make big changes to its finances and environmental approach before he would seriously consider an involvement.

"I love grands prix," said Branson, who was a guest of Force India at last year's Italian Grand Prix.

"If Bernie Ecclestone can make it more cost-effective for the likes of the Virgin brand to come into the sport, and if he can champion clean motor-car racing - which is possible to do by making sure all the cars run on clean fuels -then at some stage we might be interested in getting involved."

In a separate interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, Branson said: "I think there are faults that would need to be rectified before we could go into F1."

Although his comments suggest that he does not want to get involved for now, Branson was keeping his cards close to his chests about whether or not he was in talks with Honda.

"If we are in discussions then I wouldn't be allowed to say so, because there would be some kind of clause that would prohibit me talking about it," said Branson.

Honda's board in Japan is understood to be meeting this week to discuss the future of the F1 team, with the company having warned that disbanding the outfit remained a possibility if a suitable buyer could not be found.

The only other option to keep the team going is a management buyout by bosses Nick Fry and Ross Brawn, using money from Honda, television rights income from Ecclestone and sponsorship that would come from the signing of Bruno Senna.

The team has maintained silence about the state of negotiations for several weeks now, with a spokeswoman saying simply that they remain 'optimistic' they will be on the grid in Australia.