Ecclestone has joined forces with Luxembourg-based private investment company Genii Capital, which recently invested in Renault’s F1 team, to submit a bid for the loss-making Swedish carmaker, which has been put up for sale by parent company General Motors.

GM has also received another two bids for Saab, with one from Dutch sports car maker Spyker, and another from a Swedish consortium that is said to include Haakon Samuelsson, a former executive with lorry firms MAN and Scania, and Jan Nygren, a former politician and one-time executive with the Saab aerospace company.

Ecclestone said, "[Saab] is a good brand that has probably been neglected by the current owners. We don't own it yet, so let's see what happens." Genii added that it would "aggressively work towards a successful closing of the transaction with all the relevant stakeholders of the company," and said that Saab has "tremendous brand value in a number of key automotive markets, as well as an innovative image".

GM had previously announced that it will wind down Saab after initial talks with Spyker for a first takeover broke down last year. Spyker has now made a renewed bid after GM extended its deadline for potential new buyers. Victor Muller, the chief executive of Spyker, said: "We believe the Saab brand has lots of potential and would be keen to close a deal as quickly as possible." An earlier agreement to sell Saab to Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg fell through late last year.