According to an increasing number of media outlets the Cadillac F1 team is up for sale, with a price tag of $3bn!

In August, the team's owner, TWG Global was rumoured to be looking for a buyer, but this was promptly denied, with Adrian Atkinson, General Motors' executive director of global motorsports communications, insisting: "TWG is not considering a sale of the Cadillac team or any other part of TWG Motorsport".

At the core of the speculation was Mark Walter, one of the founders of TWG Global, who is under investigation by the US government and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Earlier this week, Sportico reported that Walter is seeking to sell his share of the Cadillac team, with seven parties already having expressed an interest.

That a team, not yet having completed its first season, having recorded just 24 finishes from 38 starts, and zero points, should already be up for sale is one thing, but the price tag quite another.

Zak Brown has previously claimed that all the teams are worth "north of a billion", but this puts the fledgling American outfit at the North Pole!

General Motors denial of the initial rumour came at a time Walter, who owns a significant stake in the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team was selling off numerous assets including the Los Angeles Lakers and a stake in English football club Chelsea FC.

He is now said to be selling the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks along with his stake in TWG, which owns Andretti Global (IndyCar), Spire Motorsports (NASCAR), Wayne Taylor Racing (IMSA) and Walkinshaw TWG Racing (Australian Supercars).

Already, there are claims that Boston-based Fenway Sports Group, which owns the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool FC, is interested in buying Walter's stake in Cadillac, which is owned by TWG and General Motors, though it not known how much of a stake in the team each actually owns.

Other than the statement read out by Atkinson at the time of the Dutch Grand Prix, it has appeared to be business as usual for Cadillac, with no further comment on the original speculation, though it remains to be seen how this latest claim will be handled.

When Michael Andretti sought to enter the sport he was met with opposition at the highest level, and it was only once he had been jettisoned, and palms greased with a $450m 'expansion fee' along with the introduction of General Motors as a manufacturer, that the door was finally opened.

GM's own engine will not be ready until 2029 - one or two years before the anticipated rules overhaul - so in the meantime the American outfit is using Ferrari power units. Meanwhile the operation is spread across two continents, with bases in Fishers, Indiana, Concord, North Carolina and Warren, Michigan along with a base in Silverstone, the engine division will also be based in North Carolina.

Sportico claims that in its debut season the team will report a $400m loss.

There is no hint of who the seven interested parties might be, but it is inevitable that Christian Horner's name will come up. Taat said, other than the mouth-watering price tag, the geographical spread of the team is unlikely to impress.

It took almost five years for the FIA to realise that Max Noble had correctly spotted potential loopholes in the budget cap regulations, interestingly, almost from the moment it appeared the same Mr Noble has questioned the reasoning behind the Cadillac operation, insisting that it wouldn't go the distance.

After all the hoops that the team was seemingly made to leap through, the forensic due diligence carried out by F1 and the FIA, to be hanging a 'for sale' sign over the door after just a few months would appear to suggest that someone, somewhere has either got it monumentally wrong or others have had the wool well and truly pulled over their eyes.