The shock withdrawal of ART’s F1 bid to be the 13th F1 team on the grid has caused F1 journalists and bloggers to go right back to the drawing board to investigate who is the most likely to get the 2011 grid slots, as it was the French team who were almost certain to join the F1 circus next year.

I’m included, and in this post I will investigate each of the 2011 F1 hopefuls and judge who I feel is the most likely to become the latest team racing in the pinnacle of motorsport.

Durango

If the 2011 grid slots were decided on liveries then Durango would certainly be racing in Formula 1, but unfortunately for them, they are not.

Durango Automotive SRL was founded in 1980 by Ivone Pinton and Enrico Magro and is based in Italy. They are currently fielding cars in the AutoGP championship.

The team have had a patchy history, and have in the past raced in GP2 where they took 3 race victories between 2005 and 2008. Not bad, you think? Financial problems caused the team to withdraw from the 2009-10 GP2 Asia Series season, and the final races of the 2009 GP2 Series season, leaving the future of the team in doubt.

Late last year, it was reported that Durango was being investigated for criminal tax evasion and fraud, and that it had been using a system of companies which constantly changed their names to issue bills with inflated figures in order to reduce costs and lower the payable tax. It was claimed by Il Gazzettino that Durango had unreported revenue of more than €12 million, false invoicing amounting to €11 million, unpaid tax of €3 million and a reduction of base tax to the tune of €16 million.

Also, their time in GP2 was littered with controversy, including controvening regulations by manufacturing their own parts rather than using Dallara’s spec equipment in 2006.

A certain Lucas di Grassi’s rear wing fell off at Silverstone later that same season, and the team were sent home after it was revealed that instead of sending them back to chassis makers Dallara, Durango had cut corners by repairing the structural parts of the car themselves…badly.

After a huge crash at Spa, Durango rocked up in Monza at the next race meeting with only one car, reportedly because Dallara had impounded their other car due to there being too many bad repairs from the team themselves. Needless to say, they were sent packing.

So, Durango, do they sound like a potential F1 team to you? No, me neither. Less said about them the better!

Cypher Group

Cypher Group is an American operation rising from the ashes of USF1, although the group has no direct links with the outfit formed by Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor, neither of whom are involved in the project.

The team are a mysterious and quiet bunch, but on their website they say “Cypher Group consists of experienced F1 engineers, designers and businessmen experienced in large-scale public and private sector finance, project and business management whose objective is to create a successful US based F1 team.”

It isn’t out of the question that Cypher Group may be collaborating with Toyota F1 in Cologne, hence the ‘experienced F1 engineers, designers and businessmen’ phrase. This would mean that they would be in an interesting position and be right in the running for the grid slots next year. A Cypher Group spokesperson explained: “We will only place a full application should we achieve fully the budget we believe is required to do this properly.”

However one thing is for sure, Cypher Group really do have an uphill struggle to win the PR battle and grid slots. The epic failure of USF1 means that any association with them leads to immediate snorts and laughter, and without any racing pedigree, I wouldn’t say that Cypher Group were really in with a chance of competing next year.

Stefan GP

It seemed for a period after the USF1 collapse that Stefan GP would jump in and take their place. They seemingly had the Toyota chassis and a structure that would see them immediately slot into Formula 1. They also claimed to have spoken to drivers such as Jacques Villeneuve and rally champ Sebastien Loeb.

However after they were rejected by the FIA, details about financial irregularities for Stefan GP’s parent company AMCO cropped up. Essentially, AMCO lied about working with Germany’s Federal Defence Force (Bundeswehr) on flight drones.

“After consulting with the system manufacturers of the drones KZO and LUNA we can confirm that in the Bundeswehr product there are no technologies of the Serbian company AMCO,” said a spokesman of the German defence department Bundesamtes fur Wehrtechnik und Beschaffung to Express.

AMCO is a limited liability company, founded on 14/03/2008 with a capital of 500 euros. Going further, the company that totals one single employee, realised 3315 Euro in 2009 and a net result of 42.7 Euro.

Something sounds very fishy behind Stefan GP, and while they seem to have a very professional setup on the face of things, it seems that it could be very different on the inside, and this could well be their undoing.

Epsilon Euskadi

While there seems to be something fishy going on behind every other 2011 F1 hopeful, there is no such trouble at Epsilon Euskadi.

The Spanish outfit competed in the Le Mans 24 hours in 2008, and has impressive racing pedigree, winning numerous titles in series including World Series by Renault and Formula Renault 2.0 Italia Winter Series with F1 graduates Robert Kubica and Jaime Alguersuari.

Personally, I feel that it is Epsilon Euskadi who have the greatest chance of being the next Formula 1 team. They have a great setup with their impressive Innovation & Technology Centre and have been successful in other forms of motorsport.

Who do you think will get the next F1 grid slots? Leave a comment!