Bernie Ecclestone has long since made his desire for the Serbian Stefan GP to be granted a late entry on the 2010 grid, and that he did so with the full knowledge that the USF1 team was never in a position to field a team at the start of the season.
The F1 supremo has suggested that “more sensible” decision need to be made in future with respect to the selection of new teams to join the field.
Hear, hear!
When it became apparent to all but USF1 that they were never going to pitch up at Sakhir, Stefan GP had been quietly soldiering away with its own preparations, aware of the risk that it might come to nought if it couldn’t secure an approval to race.
Speaking with the official F1 website, Ecclestone said: “"It was difficult because the other people (US F1) had an entry and kept saying that they were going to be here, that there is no problem and everything is fine.
"As they had an entry, we couldn’t say, ‘Sorry, we don’t believe you.’ I said that and got a lot of criticism – I said that, and it turned out to be the truth.
"Unfortunately it was not possible to get Stefan GP in at the last minute. You need to do such things a bit more sensibly."
The FIA has recently confirmed that is reopening the application book to fill the 13th vacant team berth for the 2011 season, and is interestingly willing to appoint a ‘reserve’ team… Is this their way of negating a bit of history repeating itself?
Richard Bailey
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