BAT, British American Tobacco (Lucky Strike, Gladstone..), is ready to buy a Formula One team, the English Newspaper the Times has reported. The most likely team will be Minardi. They already tried Tyrrell but Tyrrell wants to keep their name and BAT prefers it to be called the Lucky Strike team.

Jacques Villeneuve was already linked with the new team to be one of their drivers. The Company seem to have 250 million pounds ready for the deal.

BAT feels the sport should be able to accept sponsorship from whomever it likes. This is a reaction the British governmental ban on cigarette advertisement.