Preston linked to Aguri operation.

Would-be Formula One entrant Mark Preston appears to have become involved with push to get the category's latest team, Super Aguri F1, on the grid for next season.

Preston, who learnt the F1 ropes with Arrows and McLaren, announced his intention to enter his own team in the top flight in the next couple of years, setting up base at the new Silverstone Innovation Centre - where he was a neighbour of Crash.net - before decamping to different surroundings for his engineering operation. Those plans now appear to be on hold, after his name was linked to the Super Aguri team confirmed at a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Although Preston could not confirm anything when contacted by Crash.net, it is understood that he will head up the technical side of the new team, which is facing a race against time to get a car on the grid in Bahrain next March. With its plans to use a chassis design already penned by another team seemingly scuppered by the Concorde Agreement, Super Aguri is faced with either buying the intellectual property rights to a design and then finding someone outside of F1 to build it, or completing a new car from scratch. Either way, Preston and his team - which is known to include former Arrows and Ferrari designer Paul Bowen - would prove an invaluable asset.

Further information regarding the Super Aguri operation is expected to be come apparent over the coming weeks, not least the identity of its drivers, none of whom were confirmed at the Tokyo press conference.