Sir Frank Williams, one of the last true privateers on the formula one grid, says he has no plans to sell up.

His contemporay Ron Dennis, of the McLaren team, has effectively sold out to Mercedes-Benz and also Bahraini interests, while most of his other current rivals are either headed by carmakers or billionaires.

But even though his Oxfordshire-based team has been struggling for pace of late, Williams is quoted as saying by sportnet: "In the next few years we will not sell."

Recent speculation hints at a burgeoning relationship with the Icelandic investment group Baugur, but Frank Williams insists: "We would sell no more than shares, the name Williams is staying in formula one."

But veteran Williams, who is 66, acknowledges that he and the team's co-owner and engineering chief Patrick Head are "not getting younger".

However, he rules out suggestions that his son Jonathan, involved with a GP2 team but also with an office at Williams in Grove, will succeed him.

Jonathan is "too nice for formula one", Frank Williams smiles.

Source: GMM