Grapevine: Ford Still Looking for a Jaguar Buyer

The sale of the Jaguar team is far from being complete and no single buyer has emerged as a front runner for the purchasing of the Ford owned team, Atlas F1 has learned.

Furthermore, reports suggesting that Austrian drinks company Red Bull is favourite to buy Jaguar have been described by insiders as "wide off the mark" with sources claiming Red Bull is in fact unlikely to be the new owner of Jaguar Racing.

Sources inside Ford told Atlas F1 that Red Bull, along with other potential buyers, have been contacted in regards to the motor company's decision to sell their Formula One team but the sources said there had been no negotiations with Red Bull that could be regarded serious at this stage.

According to the sources, there are currently several interested parties who are holding talks with Ford over the buyout, as well as other companies who expressed interest in the purchase of engine makers Cosworth.

Since Ford's announcement last week that it had decided to withdraw from any Formula One activity, placing its racing team and engine factory for sale, speculations have been rife - particularly on what engine Jaguar's new buyer could run next year, should Cosworth discontinue its Formula One programme.

Cosworth is currently making profit from engine supply in other racing series, but is losing money in Formula One. At least $50 million (US) a year is required to develop a Formula One engine, and Cosworth does not cover these costs from engine sales to independent teams. With the FIA pushing towards longer lasting engines, the price for engine units is bound to drop even further, making the Cosworth endeavour financially unsound in the Formula One environment.

It was therefore suggested that the new owners of Jaguar could well seek engines from one of the other manufacturers, and Toyota has been mentioned as a probable candidate. But a senior engineer at Jaguar told Atlas F1 it would be too late to redesign the 2005 car to accommodate a new engine altogether, and would make no sense financially.

Rather, the engineer suggested the new owner is likely to continue using Cosworth engines in 2005 - using a large stack of existing engines - even if Cosworth itself is sold to a new owner. There are enough existing engines to offer parts maintenance as well, and the engineering staff would be able to utilise these engines in a better fashion than they would if they had to re-engineer the car and team for a completely different engine make.

Overall, though, Ford are currently confident that both the team and Cosworth will be sold, and sources at Jaguar said the team is "more than likely" to be racing next season. 2005 may be a tough year, but with the right buyer and the right budget, the team can recover and have a more competitive package towards 2006.

And until then, the Jaguar boys and girls are keeping their chin up: at Shanghai today, ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, they posed for a team photo which included the sign - "For Sale".