Team CEO Nick Fry recently suggested that there were as many as 30 bidders, with 12 of them being serious, although failed to reveal any details of these bids. However, Fukui was more forthcoming at a Honda press conference this morning.

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

Here at RealHondaF1.com, we're now unsure as to what qualifies as a 'serious' bid, with the company turning down a £100m (€112m/$146) rescue bid. Richard Branson's Virgin Group are also understood to have put a bid in for the team, while Nick Fry, Ross Brawn and three other senior executives at Brackley are heading a management buy out.

Time is running out for Brackley now, with Mercedes imposing a deadline of this afternoon for a decision - beyond that they claim to be unable to provide engines. There is a final deadline of 3 March for Brackley, the date at which the three month redundancy notices run out.