Even though he has not followed through to buy an existing Formula One team in the past few years as several came on the market, such as Spyker, Toro Rosso and now Honda, A1GP boss Tony Teixeira insists that he is still interested in becoming a team boss in the pinnacle of Motorsports.

However, that said, he told Autosport that his team, built from scratch, would have to be based in Portugal at the new Portimao circuit where he has purchased 47,000 square meters of land and be backed by the government. His plans are to build a head office, an A1GP factory, an A2 factory, restaurants and merchandising.

"The team that I've been looking at would be based (in Portugal) and backed by the Portuguese government,” he told Autosport. “If this is going to be such an important racing centre, they have to have an F1 team to compete with. Otherwise it means nothing without F1...The idea is that eventually it could house an A1/F1 office."

While he did not continue with a deal to purchase Honda, mainly due to the current economic crisis, the A1Gp boss admitted that the plan is to start from scratch so that the winner of the A1Gp series has a Formula One seat to advance to.

"I was one of the guys talking to Honda in the last two weeks," he said. "We had done a deal on Spyker, but I let Vijay (Mallya) take it. We then went to Toro Rosso in November and all the  (other) teams said 'no customer boss' so I had to walk away. Today I'm in a completely different situation. I've built my own cars and designed my own chassis. I have my own factory. So I'm not a customer boss. I can now build my chassis and run with a Ferrari engine. I'm now the same as everyone else. The only reason we want an F1 team is for the winners of A1 to go to F1. But, because of the times, I cannot commit myself to this year's budget."