Hot on the heels of news that Williams is for sale, another independent British team - McLaren - is reportedly also on the market amid the corona crisis.

Mark Kleinman, the respected City editor for Sky News, says talks between McLaren officials and "advisers and lenders" have already taken place.

A source said the move is only at the "conceptual stage", but as much as 30 percent of the Woking based team could be offloaded to raise what Kleinman said could be "hundreds of millions of pounds".

Although Daniel Ricciardo has been signed up for 2021, McLaren last week moved to mortgage its famous F1 factory and classic car collection to see it through the corona crisis.

"Insiders suggested that the sale of a minority shareholding would help to provide sufficient funds to assist Mr Brown's ambition of seeing McLaren compete again for drivers' and constructors' titles in the coming years," Kleinman wrote.

McLaren did not comment.