While there is only 14 days before the first race of the season in Bahrain, news concerning the fate of F1 new entrants are rushing out. According to latest information, the struggling start-up USF1 Formula 1 team has formally petitioned the FIA to defer the team's entry into the sport until 2011.
Team principals Ken Anderson and Chad Hurley have offered to post a “substantial, seven-figure” surety bond as proof of their intentions to race next year.
The request for a deferment follows a breakdown in merger discussions between USF1 and the Spanish Campos Meta team. The Serbian-based Stefan GP team has also involved in the merging negotiations under the guidance of Youtube's co-founder Charled Hurtley, about co-operating with USF1, but those talks also failed to yield anything substantive.
In addition, it has now come into public that apart from Argentinian Jose Maria Lopez, British James Rossiter had already been agreed with the team since December without any official announcement from the team, both with a paid contract of $8m each. Still both drivers' backers withdrew after being informed about the condition of the team eventhough there was a significant sponsored budget of $16m. Rossiter then signed with KVRT IndyCar Series team while Lopez was trying to agree with the struggling Campos Meta for a paid driver seat without further success.
It now appears that neither USF1 nor Campos will be on the grid for the season-opener at Bahrain.
Although USF1 was the first team last year to announce its will to participate at 2010 F1 championship a year ago, its entry delay appears so similar to the case of David Richards' Prodrive back in 2007. After bidding for a 2008 season entry, the British motorsport enterprise canceled its entry frustating FIA to give Richards another F1 entry last June.
SPEEDtv.com
