The deadline to save the Honda racing team is almost upon us and there is still no serious contender to take on the responsibility of putting the cars from Brackley on the grid in the season opening Australian Grand Prix next month.

While there have been a few recent proposals, such as Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and assistance from F1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone in a takeover bid, before standing down from his current role as CEO at Honda, Takeo Fukui admitted that there were no real serious offers on the table.

“There are various offers for the team, but we have not seen any serious buyers yet. We find the sale process difficult." he said.

Ecclestone’s bid would have seen the team on the grid with Bruno Senna in place alongside Jenson Button, a good scenario all round, but his 100 million pound offer was rejected.

“I don’t think anybody knows what is going to happen with Honda. It is up to them to make up their bloody minds. But the team can go one of three ways,” he told News of the World. “They either go with the management buy-out, sell to Richard Branson or they could simply just close down the whole thing. The silly thing is we have got Bruno wanting to drive. It would be fantastic for everybody to have the name Senna back in F1.”

With time running out it is looking more and more like they will take option number three and close the doors forever, but according to Ecclestone, it won’t really be a big loss to the sport.

“If we lost a McLaren or Ferrari or somebody like BMW, people would wonder what’s going on. But I don’t think that will be the case with Honda. They didn’t do too much last year, did they?”