Richards rules out Prodrive team in future

Dave Richards

(GMM) F1's new commercial agreement means that Prodrive will not enter the sport in the near future, David Richards said on Thursday.

The Oxfordshire based company's chief had earlier left open the option of reassessing Prodrive's plans in 2009, having withdrawn his entry to become formula one's twelfth team this season because of the 'customer car' furor.

But Autocar reports that Richards now definitively considers the Prodrive F1 project a "dead duck", following the finalization 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".