It is understood that Prodrive, set to be F1’s twelfth team in 2008, has been successful in its recently reported bid to buy Aston Martin.
Backed by US and Middle East investors, Warwickshire based Prodrive’s boss David Richards led a consortium that reportedly bid an estimated $900 million to buy the English car manufacturer from Ford.
The ultimate price may have increased to as much as (US) $965 million, with a deal set to be announced on Friday at the Geneva auto show.
Prodrive declined to comment, but Ford may have favoured Prodrive’s offer because the company already runs Aston Martin’s racing programme for sports cars.
Aston Martin raced eleven times in F1 in 1959-60.
