Tony Fernandes, team principal of the new LotusF1 team, has encouraged businesses to invest in Formula One despite the recent withdrawal of manufacturers from the sport.

Fernandes, who was speaking in the keynote address on the first day of the 2009 Motor Sport Business Forum in Monaco, said with costs coming down there are a number of ways for companies to make money and that Formula One is “a great business for other businesses to sit on as a platform”.

He also added that regardless of his team starting on a modest budget, it can deliver in the 2010 season.

"We started to build the car and bring in the people even before we had a grid slot. I told Mike Gascoigne [the team's technical director], 'if this doesn't work I'm going to have some very expensive pictures'. But that paid off so we're looking confident and we're about a week ahead of schedule for being on the grid," he said.

"We have a budget of £55 million this year to get the team going. That involves a lot of start-up costs. We are obviously the latest entry vis-a-vis a new team, because Sauber has come in but they've got all the infrastructure in place. We have had to build everything from scratch."

Fernandes, who is one of the main investors in the venture through his Tune Group company, is also CEO of the AirAsia airline.