LONDON — Virgin may be ready to take over Formula One team Honda but only if the sport is ready to make major changes, boss Richard Branson said Saturday.

The British businessman told BBC radio that although he loves Formula One, a lack of environmentally friendly technology and the high running costs could keep Virgin from entering the sport.

"Formula One should be championing new, cleaner technology and if we were to get involved we want to be sure that we could run our cars in a very short period of time on clean fuels, which would set an example to normal cars on the road," Branson said.

Honda pulled out of F1 in December because of the high cost of running the team amid the global economic downturn.