By Alan Baldwin

LONDON, ENGLAND - Former Benetton and BAR boss David Richards said on Monday he was keeping an open mind about any possible rescue of Honda's Formula One team.

"I'm not rushing in blindly and saying absolutely this is something I've got to do," the Prodrive and Aston Martin chairman, who has strong Kuwaiti backers, told Reuters by telephone.

"I want to know all the facts, first of all. I want to know the exact lie of the land before I commit myself to anything."

Richards, who presided over the BAR team before they were bought by Honda, had planned to return to Formula One with Prodrive this season in what would have been the sport's 12th team on the grid.

That plan was shelved due to commercial uncertainty and a legal challenge to their intention to run McLaren chassis and engines as a 'customer team'.

ECONOMIC CRISIS

Honda, by many estimates the biggest spenders this year in a sport with some individual team budgets in excess of $300 million, announced last Friday they were pulling out for financial reasons in the face of the global economic crisis.

The British-based team had dismal 2007 and 2008 seasons and their abrupt departure would leave the sport with just 18 cars on the starting grid.

"It's not about buying it," said Richards of a team that may have little more than a symbolic price-tag on it given Honda's determination to close it down if no suitable buyer can be found.

"It's all very well going along and making the commitment to buy it because I don't think that will be too onerous," he added.

"The real issue is to make sure that you have the resources and the wherewithal to sustain it for the foreseeable future."

Prodrive, who also run the Subaru World Rally team and Aston Martin's Le Mans motorsport programmes as well as the Ford Performance Racing team in Australia, are 40 percent owned by Kuwait's The Investment Dar company.

Last year, Richards led a consortium which saw the Kuwaiti company acquire British luxury sportscar maker Aston Martin from Ford.

Formula One's governing body has significant cost-cutting measures in the pipeline from next year, with teams to be offered the option of low-cost powertrains (engines and gearboxes) from 2010.

(Editing by Tony Jimenez)