New F1 team to be announced

Dallara has been working behind the scenes for several months now in preparing a chassis and it has been on a massive recruitment drive to bolster its staff and get itself geared up for a full-time F1 effort in time for the start of 2006.

The funding for the project is believed to come from either Russian or Canadian backers and an announcement about the plans is expected to be made on Friday - simultaneously in both Japan and Italy.

Under the plans for a 2006 entry, Dallara will build a test chassis and is expected to run with Cosworth engines next year while it gathers data and knowledge of F1 machinery, having not built a full-spec F1 car since an aborted project with Honda in 1999.

However, sources claim that Dallara's backers may be keen to get on the grid next year and could be ready to make a bid to buy Jaguar - where they will have a ready-made car in the team's R6 and all the facilities and staff they need to be on the grid in Melbourne next March.

Speculation about such a scenario is growing with insiders claiming that hopes for a Red Bull purchase of Jaguar based around Toyota engines are now fading - with Toyota chiefs in Japan having ruled out supplying any customer engines to the team in 2005.

The reasons for such a decision, just weeks after it was revealed that Toyota was planning to supply customer engines next year, could be because a potential buyer of Jaguar has also offered to take on Cosworth.

Former Jordan technical director Gary Anderson has been linked with a role at the new Dallara team, while former world rally navigator Christian Geisdoerfer is expected to be sporting director.

Dallara last raced in Formula 1 in 1992, although it enjoyed little success despite having customer Ferrari engines.