Prodrive look at becoming McLaren 'B'

With the imminent collapse of Japanese investment firm Direxiv's plans to link up with McLaren, Autosport reports that Richards has held talks with McLaren about running customer chassis and Mercedes-Benz engines from 2008.

Richards has made no secret of the fact that his new F1 team could have a better chance of success becoming a customer team, rather than trying to create everything from scratch.

Speaking to Autosport, Richards said: "One of the things I am trying to do with Prodrive F1 is to bring in fresh ideas and fresh thinking.

"We have an opportunity to do things in a new way, a much less labour-intensive way and in a manner that we believe will shatter some of the entrenched beliefs about how a Formula One team has to be structured."

Richards attended last weekend's French Grand Prix as part of the early groundwork for his team. It is understood that he held talks with team personnel, prior to him drawing up a wish-list of key staff that he wants for his outfit.