Formula One news

Potential buyers queing at Jaguar's door

Jaguar boss Tony Purnell said potential buyers were knocking at the team's door after Ford's shock announcement that it was withdrawing its backing. Jaguar Racing has been owned by Ford since 1999, when they took over the struggling outfit of former Formula One champion Jackie Stewart.

But Ford announced last week that it was ending production of Jaguar cars at a plant in Coventry, central England, with the loss of more than 1,000 jobs because of weak demand for the up-market brand. The move means Ford will no longer back Jaguar Racing Formula One Purnell said finding someone to take over was not expected to be difficult. "There's masses of interest of course. I'm getting phone calls night and day," he said. "We are sifting through realistic buyers and I'm fairly confident a solution will be found," he said.

But he stressed that the team's businesses would not necessarily be sold to the highest bidder. "The fact is we are only going to sell to a credible buyer," he said. "It's all about funding a Formula One team on an ongoing basis. We will only change ownership to someone able to do the job credibly for two to three years."

Providing Jaguar with the resources to compete with leading manufacturer teams like Ferrari and Renault would have required a major cash injection that Ford would have found difficult to justify when it is cutting 1,000 jobs. Purnell said he understood the decision from a business perspective. "When you have a company as big as Ford you have to make brutal decisions and I understand how they feel this was necessary," he said.

Despite the turmoil Jaguar drivers Australian Mark Webber and Austria's Christian Klien were focused on this weekend's Shanghai Grand Prix. "The spirit in the team, given the circumstances, is phenomenal," said Purnell.

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