Durango/Villeneuve F1 project might have lost the 13th F1 grid position as well as the other candidates but Villeneuve promised to move to a possible "plan B" purchasing the entry of an existing F1 team. Moreover, Durango boss Ivone Pinton admited that they have not yet given up on some kind of F1 involvement in 2011 or an alternative NASCAR participation instead if things don’t work out for F1, following latest Villeneuve's excellent NASCAR performance with Braun Motorsports.
Pinton commented on website 422race about the possibilities to co-operate with any of the existing F1 team owners who are looking for new owners or fresh investment.
“We started one year ago. When I decided to be out of GP2, and I dedicated all myself to look for the right partners and economic possibilities. Villeneuve himself, who came to look for me to be able to do something together, was a good presence. He raced for me in Speedcar Series, had fun and found out that, after knowing each other for 23 years, we were still the same people. It’s a pleasant, sincere and quiet relationship. Now we are still working together and we hope for this adventure to realize... At the moment we are in contact with a couple of Formula One teams either to become partners or to buy the team, given that we have the possibilities to do things well and the right timing to move the economic part as well. Having said this, if it won’t be this year, it will be the next.
Meanwhile, he proposed (to) me, if we won’t be able to go to F1, to skip to NASCAR together and then come back trying to do things well in Europe. This is the most logical and possible situation. It’s useless to do something if you aren’t sure of the quality. And we already saw how it is to do F1 without quality... I think that NASCAR needs some European style. I came to see it with Jacques, and they are American, they live for the show. We always lived for races and passion. If we could merge these two aspects – American show and European organization – we could bring a new quality to them, which would certainly be appreciated.”
