“ART Grand Prix has decided to withdraw their application to the International Federation of Automobiles (FIA) to take part in the 2011 Formula One Championship,” said the statement from the current GP2 outfit.
“The team has been working for several months on this ambitious project that they had undertaken with determination and lucidity. ART Grand Prix had forged strong bonds with several technical and financial partners but with unfavorable economic conditions they could not gather the necessary guarantees to ensure the stability of the project in the long term.”
The team headed by Nicolas Todt, the son of current FIA president Jean Todt and also manager of Ferrari driver Felipe Massa and former F1 racer Sebastien Bourdais, insisted however that they will remain committed to their current operations in the secondary formulas such as the GP2 Series, F3 Euroseries and GP3.
Additionally, ART hinted that their F1 project has not been killed, but only postponed, and later attempts to make the step into the series are possible in the future.
“Therefore, the company will have to postpone its project until a later date, however it remains completely focused and dedicated to the other single-seater championships in which they are successfully involved in,” concluded the statement.
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