The "hard-up" Manor F1 team "could soon be sold" after Owner Stephen Fitzpatrick said on Friday that talks "were at an advanced stage with an unnamed investor," according to Alan Baldwin of REUTERS. Fitzpatrick: "I can't talk too much about the specifics but we've been in discussions with several investors for the last six months I'd say. We have agreed terms with an investor at the moment and we are still working through that." Fitzpatrick, "who saved the tail-end British-based team from collapse" after it went into administration as Marussia in '14, said that he had "always accepted that money equaled performance" in F1 and Manor needed it. He said, "Anything that was going to bring more funding to the team and help the team develop and progress I was very open to and if that meant bringing in another investor, and even a majority investor, that was something I was happy to do." Manor CEO Thomas Mayer said earlier that the talks were for a third party to "acquire a majority shareholding in the smallest team on the starting grid" (REUTERS, 11/25).
