And he denied that the company had ever traded insolvently or fraudulently - accusations that were made by a High Court judge on Thursday.

Arrows' co-owner, the investment bank Morgan Grenfell, had taken the team to court to prevent them doing a deal that Walkinshaw had lined up with the soft drinks manufacturer Red Bull.

The judge said that Arrows' actions had been "underhand and improper, indeed downright dishonest".

But Walkinshaw defended his behaviour towards his partner.

"When it went to court, we were prevented from disclosing certain documents, so I can understand why the judge came to where he did," he said.

"It looked like we were trying to put trade creditors before secured creditors and he was prevented from seeing documents that proved that was not the case."