FORMULA ONE: Jordan's securing of backing from the Ford motor company could turn out to be a bigger coup than even Eddie Jordan imagines if rumours surrounding the Jaguar Racing team prove true.

According to reports from the BBC, Ford could be on the verge of pulling the plug on its costly but disastrous venture into F1 with its subsidiary Jaguar with a sell-out to the Red Bull drinks company.

The man behind Red Bull, Swiss multi-millionaire Dietrich Mateschitz is a keen supporter of Formula One and has been involved in several major sponosrship deals in the past, including the title sponsorship of the Swiss Sauber-Petronas team.

Mateschitz's plans to move into Formula One team ownership have shifted to Jaguar and is believed to have tabled an offer of $50 million for the Jaguar team.

Ford are known to be less than satisfied with its first F1 venture and with costs spiralling towards $150 million annually and just a handful of points to show from almost three seasons of effort, the company may be keen to sell.

Mateschitz is known to want to maintain the team's use of Cosworth engines if a deal does go through, but in the aftermath of any sale it is likely that any engine deal would be on a purely customer basis.

A sale of Jaguar to Red Bull would seem to play straight into Jordan's hands with Ford's main F1 thrust being devoted to Jordan, a team which will next year race with the company's famous blue oval logo on its cars.

The deal Mateschitz is believed to want to pitch to Ford involves the purchase of a 70 per cent stake in the team for about £50 miullion. The team would use this years Cosworth CR3 engine - again hinting at a customer deal. The Jaguar name would disappear, to be replaced by the name Team Red Bull USA and would feature drivers being sourced through a driver search programme currently running in the US in a bid to find promising new American racers.

Mateschitz has apparently told Ford bosses he wants an answer on his proposal before the end of September.