Stefan GP to Offer Jobs to Toyota F1 Staff

The 500 employees that were laid off by the Toyota F1 team during the course of last weekend might get a second chance at continuing their F1 careers with Stefan Grand Prix. Yes, we're talking about the Serbian outfit who failed to make the final entry list published by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) during the course of last week.

Stefan GP is financed and managed by Belgrade based businessman Zoran Stefanovich, and last week confirmed that they will push for the FIA to grant them with a 14th entry in the Formula One series. In order to show the ruling body that they mean business, the Serbian outfit yesterday released job applications for their future F1 operations.

Through a press release made public by the team on Monday, the fact that Stefan GP wants to buy into the former Toyota F1 team is quite obvious. How come? Well, for starters, some future jobs with Stefan GP will be located in Germany (probably at Cologne), as confirmed by the team, while other will be created back in Serbia.

“Some posts will be located in Germany (and the) rest of (the) team will be located in Belgrade, Serbia,” said the announcement from the Eastern European team, while also hinting that the 500 former employees of Toyota will have a slight advantage when applying for jobs.

Prior to this announcement, the team also confirmed to the media that former Toyota F1 president John Howett indeed visited the outfit's Belgrade headquarters on Monday. The two parties are reportedly discussing a potential handover of all F1 operations from Toyota, in order to escape the potential penalties that could be handed by the FIA to the Japanese manufacturer.

Before announcing their quit from the series, Toyota had signed the new Concorde Agreement, by which they committed to the F1 championship by the end of 2012. Consequently, they are now facing a serious fine from the FIA for walking away before the projected deadline.