Grapevine: Pollock Could be Interested in New F1 Team

Former BAR chief Craig Pollock said today that he could be interested in heading up German businessman Oliver Behring's planned Grand Prix team if the project proves to be a promising prospect.

Pollock, who was bidding against Behring to buy the Arrows Grand Prix team last year, has not yet been approached by the German but was mentioned by him in the German press as a possible candidate for team principal.

"He mentioned my name and it came as a surprise to me," Pollock said. "I have my reservations but if the idea came out and it was a fantastic deal of course I would be interested. At the moment I don't see that any deal is there and I've no contact with Behring.

"I've got enough on my plate with my other businesses so it would certainly have to be a very, very interesting deal to make me interested."

Pollock was displaced by David Richards at the head of BAR Honda last year but remains a part-owner of the team and is also Jacques Villeneuve's manager. He set up the BAR team in 1999 with long-term associates British American Tobacco but after partner Adrian Reynard predicted the team would win their first race Pollock failed to lead them to such anticipated heights.

He has now set up a CART team in the United States but still travels to Grands Prix to watch over Villeneuve and admitted: "Formula One is still the pinnacle and, yes, I do miss it. The unfinished business in Formula One can only be involved with a team that is attacking for race wins and winning championships because the team that I still own part of, BAR, is up there and is attacking for top-six finishes."

Behring has made initial contact with the sport's governing body, the FIA, over the possibility of entering a team in next year's Formula One World Championship. He claims to have the budget to complete the 2004 season but is understood to be pushing for the FIA to cancel their requirement for a $48 million (USD) entry bond and may not continue the project if that does not happen.