Wednesday 17 December at 12:00 : Dec.17 (GMM) In a twist of fate, Subaru's withdrawal from the world rally championship could pave the way for David Richards to re-enter formula one

The Japanese carmaker had collaborated with Richards' Prodrive motor racing company

And with Richards already eyeing the purchase of Honda's F1 team, he told the British newspaper The Sun that this week's developments "clears the decks and gives me a bit of spare time to think about it"

"The new structure for F1 from 2010 onwards, with new regulations coming and very significant cost cutting programmes, certainly make it more appealing and far more suitable for a company such as ours," he added

"What's on the table today makes it far more feasible."nnRichards, who formerly ran the Benetton and BAR teams, almost brought Prodrive into F1 this year but baulked at the 'customer car' situation