Ailing Aguri set to make Spain Grand Prix: team official

Cash-strapped Japanese Formula One team Super Aguri looks set to take part in this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, narrowly avoiding collapse for now, a team official said Tuesday.

Super Aguri, which has struggled since it was founded in late 2005 by former Japanese racer Aguri Suzuki, suffered a major blow last week when Britain's Magma Group backed out of plans to acquire it.

But a team official played down fears that the team would fail to make it to the next Grand Prix in Spain on Sunday.

"Things are going in the direction for participation in Spain, but we are still not in a position to make further comments," said the team official, who declined to be named.

Super Aguri acknowledged last week that the team's future was on the line after the withdrawal of the Magma Group, a British motor industry consultant firm led by former Ford and Maserati executive Martin Leach.

Honda, which provides engines and technical support and has its own separate team, has also said it had no plans to bail out Super Aguri.

The team is yet to score any points after three races. Its drivers, Briton Anthony Davidson and Japan's Takuma Sato, both failed to finish in the opening race in Australia. Their best result was Davidson's 15th place in Malaysia.

Last year, Super Aguri won just four points in the constructors' championships -- an improvement on their pointless debut season -- to finish second-last.

The team was part of Suzuki's long-held ambition to create the first all-Japanese team. Suzuki was the first Asian on a F1 podium when he finished third at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix.

Super Aguri initially had all-Japanese constructors, engine and tyre suppliers, as well as Japanese drivers in Sato and Yuki Ide.

But Ide was stripped of his F1 licence after four races partly because he was too slow and was replaced by Frenchman Franck Montagny.