It was rumoured last night that Aguri had managed to cobble together a new deal with Magma, who were left high and dry after their investors – Dubai International Capital – pulled out at the last minute. But with both drivers soldiering on, at least the race will have 22 cars on the grid. Interestingly, Sato was able to lap the Montmelo circuit just 0.2s shy of Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Vettel this morning, a slight improvement over previous form. Is it possible that Aguri are confident of a deal, and are now less concerned about the Japanese driver trashing the car?

Original article by BlogF1.

Super Aguri Will Go To The Ball

Magma, who are headed by former president of Ford Europe Martin Leach, had negotiated around 80% of the funds necessary to buy Aguri from Dubai International Capital, but they have since pulled out citing a lack of a clear commercial agreement for the future of Formula One and the insistence that customer cars will longer be allowed in the near future as reason for the decision.

Nick Fry’s words do sound like a man who is willing to bend.

Honda in my opinion have done the maximum possible to support the Super Aguri team.

It was never Honda’s intention to fully fund two Formula One teams but Honda have been incredibly supportive over the last two years of Super Aguri. But they do need to find funding of their own.

We have been engaged almost full time in the last few weeks trying to find a solution and I hope that it’s going to be a happy ending to the story, but at this stage that certainly can’t be guaranteed. Nick Fry.

However, the latest news in the Spanish paddock is that Aguri have been able to re-negotiate a deal with Magma, but currently nobody is confirming anything. It was reported earlier in the week that Super Aguri were looking for around the $100m mark for the team, almost all of which would go straight back to Honda has repayment for the debt owed.

Hopefully enough can be done for Aguri to race this weekend and the rest of the year. The team have until Friday to work something out, presumably the start of Friday Free Practice is indeed that time.

Original article by BlogF1.

Honda Not Keen On Bailing Out Super Aguri