Prodrive won't test before December

Although Richards is in talks with three current F1 teams about a customer car and engine deal, he has ruled out any possibility of Prodrive's F1 operation hitting the test track early in their preparations for 2008.

"Everything has got to be sorted by March 2008 and we are just working backwards from there," he told autosport.com. "You would be surprised how little impact you would have not having anything in place until the latter part of the season.

"We have no intention of running before December."

Richards has said he is still open about his team's plans for 2008, and had not yet decided which team he will receive his customer car and engine from. Last year he revealed that talks had taken place with Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and BMW.

"We have got three options still," said Richards, who did not reveal who he was in negotiations with. "I have a favoured one obviously, but I would be foolish until things are settled to not look at all the solutions that people are proposing for us."

He added: "We are not going to build our own car and we are going to partner with one of the existing teams. They will benefit from working closely with us, with the testing, development and extra mileage on the track, and we will get access to a competitive F1 car."

Although Richards is in no rush to finalise his drivers, he said that staff announcement would be made soon as he sorts out the personnel who will run the operation.

"I have started my recruitment programme and my first announcement will be made shortly. Over the next few months you will see a few other significant announcements."

When asked whether former Honda Racing technical director Geoff Willis would be part of the team, Richards said: "I am not going to mention any individual names whatsoever at the moment. I could say yes, no or lie to you, but I would rather make no comment as to who they are until they come out."