Prodrive submits entry for 2010 F1 championship

Posted at 12:00am on 29 May 2009

By Alan Baldwin

LONDON, May 29 (Reuters) - Prodrive, led by former Benetton and BAR team boss David Richards, submitted their entry for the 2010 Formula One championship on Friday as one of several potential new teams seeking a place on the grid.

Richards is also the chairman of sportscar maker Aston Martin, majority owned by Kuwait's Investment Dar, as well as Prodrive.

"With the help of Dar Capital, in raising the finance, coupled with our understanding of the latest proposals to assist new teams, we now feel the conditions are right to formally request the FIA for an entry," Richards said in a statement.

Although the statement did not mention Aston Martin, a Prodrive entry if accepted is likely to compete eventually under that name.

Friday is the deadline day for entries, with former champions Williams so far alone among the 10 existing teams to have confirmed their entry.

The others, including champions Ferrari, are considering their position.

They are expected to issue a statement later, probably confirming their entry with conditions attached, after some of them threatened to withdraw unless the 2010 rules were rewritten.

Prodrive would have entered the sport in 2008, with a plan to run "customer cars" provided by McLaren, after being allocated what was then the 12th and final slot but they withdrew due to uncertainty over the regulations.

The governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) wants to introduce an optional budget cap of 40 million pounds ($64.14 million) in 2010 but has met strong resistance from existing teams.

FIA president Max Mosley suggested last weekend in Monaco that the cap could be phased in.

Team sources have suggested that the most likely scenario now is for a 100 million euro cap next year, going down to 45 million euros in 2011.

Any new teams could be given considerable technical assistance from existing entries to help level the playing field.

"The level of next year's cost cap has risen substantially since we originally considered entering," said Richards.

"However everyone appears committed to major reductions in future years and when one takes into account the transition proposals for new teams we are confident that we now have the opportunity to be both commercially viable and competitive.

"As we have said all along, we don't want to be in Formula One just to make up the numbers."

The FIA has said there would be room for three new teams to come into Formula One if all the existing ones stay, and the entry list will be published on June 12.

(Editing by Miles Evans; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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