Tony Fernandes — the 50-year-old Malaysian owner of the Caterham F1 team — has said that the parent Caterham Group is not for sale, despite widespread rumours in the press. Mr Fernandes, who also owns budget airline Air Asia and the London football club Queens Park Rangers, did admit that the group is looking to attract outside investment.

He said that he had been forced to release a statement to the media after it was reported by Malaysia’s Edge financial newspaper that he was planning to sell the group’s assets for around £350 million.

Mr Fernandes said: “The Caterham Group is not for sale; we love what we build, and we are always looking for further investment, which is no different to how we started Air Asia. We are constantly challenging ourselves and making decisions on everything from the structure to projects within the group. That is normal business; it does not mean we are selling.” He went on to dismiss the reports as “factually incorrect.”

Mr Fernandes — ranked as the 28th-richest person in Malaysia by Forbes magazine — entered F1 with Caterham in 2010, but the team failed to win any points in the 2012 and 2013 seasons. It employs around 350 people in the village of Leafield, which is about 18 miles north-west of Witney, Oxfordshire.

Last November, Caterham took on extra staff there to work on its motorcycle racing team, which competes in the second tier of international motorbike racing. It also unveiled plans to launch a motorbike division.