But Autocar reports that Richards now definitively considers the Prodrive F1 project a “dead duck”, following the finalisation of the new Concorde Agreement.
The British automobile magazine says the sport’s belated commercial agreement for 2008 and beyond makes it mandatory for teams to ultimately be constructors.
Richards, at the Autosport exhibition in Birmingham, said the clause will make it “not financially viable for smaller teams to enter the sport”
He added that, for a small team like Prodrive, it would be “too impractical to be competitive”.