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Cosworth up for sale

Cosworth currently supplies two F1 teams © Sutton Images

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The Cosworth Group, which supplies engines in Formula One, has been put up for sale after abandoning plans to float on the stock exchange.

Cosworth currently supplies Marussia and HRT on the F1 grid and is working on a 2014 powertrain when the sport will switch to V6 turbos. The Times reports that aircraft engine company Rolls-Royce and other aerospace companies are likely to be interested in buying the company after it has diversified in recent years. The decision to put the company up for sale has come after plans for an initial public offering were abandoned due to volatile markets.

"We have been paused for the last 18 months and the board has decided that we cannot wait any longer otherwise we risk losing momentum," Tom Routsis, Cosworth's chief executive, told the Times.

Cosworth was first involved in Formula One in 1963 and was most successful with the DFV V8 that won 155 grands prix between 1967 and 1983. In recent years its customer base has been slashed from four teams to just two but it is still keen to continue in F1 in 2014 when new engine regulations will see a switch to V6 turbos.

"[We'd] love to do it," Cosworth F1's general manager Kim Spearman said at the Japanese Grand Prix. "If we can find a commercially sustainable way to provide a competitive platform for some potential customers, we'd like to do that.

"We are in useful negotiations with customers and hopefully we'll find a way to be in. We've been in business for 54 years, much of it in Formula One. We've got passionate people back at Cosworth who want to stay in Formula One and we'd like to get there. We've been working on the engine for 18 months."

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