Last December, when Sauber was trying to rescue his team after BMW's exit from the series, the International Automobile Federation (FIA) announced that it will hand the Swiss outfit an entry for the 2010 season. Nevertheless, the team fails to appear on the new FIA entry list for the 2010 competition year, as the list currently has only 12 teams.
The anomaly could only mean that the FIA is keeping an open eye on the prospect of having some new entrants joining the series in 2010. Stefan GP is waiting to find out where they stand ahead of the season opening Bahrain GP, but the latest rumors from across the Atlantic suggest that both the Serbian and the Swiss outfit may feature in F1's 2010 entry list.
With US F1 seeking permission to miss the opening 4 rounds of the 2010 season due to financial difficulties, the FIA may most likely be inclined to withdraw their entry for the North Carolina-based team and hand it to BMW Sauber. Therefore, the Swiss outfit would race with race numbers 22 and 23 on their car, while Stefan would be handed the last 2 numbers available on the grid.
Under the FIA rules for the 2010 season of F1, a maximum of 13 teams will be allowed to contest in the championship. Fewer teams at the start of the season is unlikely to be accepted by the FIA, as the ruling body recently adopted the change of the point-scoring format for the new campaign (Top 10 finishers will score points).
According to Stefan GP boss Zoran Stefanovic, the team's car for the new season is already prepared and ready to go testing, meaning that the FIA are pretty much covered for the 2010 season. The only unknown is whether they'll prefer to save the soon-to-be-defunct US F1 organization or abandon the project in order to include BMW Sauber and Stefan GP jointly into the 2010 entry list.
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