A1GP chairman Tony Teixeira has ruled out fielding a team in Formula One due to the ban on so-called 'customer cars'.

Teixeira has in the past spoken about A1GP's desire to have an F1 team that they could use not only to promote their own series but also give the season's winner a chance to race in the world's premier motor racing format.

"We wanted an A1 team in F1 where our winners from the A1GP series would go and race in F1," the South Africa said. "The reason for that has always been that every kid's aspiration ultimately is to end up in F1."

Teixeira even went as far as hold talks with the former Spyker team and, up until the end of last year, was also talking with the Ferrari-powered Toro Rosso outfit.

However, once it became clear that F1 would not be allowing so-called 'customer cars' in their championship, he opted against entering the sport.

"We wanted to be running at the top, and that means top 10," he explained to Reuters. "The only way we were going to achieve that was with the customer cars. In other words, we were going to be the Ferrari B team and that's why I was willing to buy Toro Rosso.

"Initially it was Spyker, because I already had a deal with Ferrari and that was the biggest thing that attracted me.

"I then made way for Vijay to buy Spyker because Bernie (Ecclestone) needed India and I said 'fine, I'll make way and look more favourably at Toro Rosso', which had a similar agreement (with Ferrari).

"I sat with Toro Rosso and when we were close to a deal, F1 changed the rules: No customer cars. When they changed the rules, I was through.

"As you know, Prodrive walked away," he added, referring to that British company's decision not to take up the allocated slot as Formula One's 12th team.

"That was going to be the McLaren B team. It was going to be Red Bull running with Renault, Williams with Toyota and Aguri with Honda. That makes sense to us because there was no way we could go and develop our own chassis and be competitive.

"I don't profess to have that kind of money and even if I did I wouldn't put it into F1, it would be madness. All we were looking to do was promote A1 through F1, because we still believe F1 is the biggest promoting machine available."

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