“On the one hand it is too late, and on the other hand there is no longer the budget limit of 45 million euros,” Austrian national broadcaster ORF quoted Wurz as saying.
Prior to the FIA's initial entry list for the 2010 F1 series, the ruling body – while still at war with the Formula One Teams Association – had decided to a 45 million euros budget cap for all teams, starting 2010. Under the circumstances, there were at least a dozen teams announcing their plans to set up an F1 operation, but only 3 were chosen by the FIA – US F1, Campos Grand Prix and Manor Grand Prix.
With the FIA-FOTA war later resulting in the drop of the aforementioned budget cap, several worries were raised as to whether the 3 newly entrants will resist financially in the series. While the North-American outfit insisted they are in F1 to stay from the early beginning, the other two teams have only last week confirmed their presence in F1, with the signing of the new Concorde Agreement (linking the F1 teams to Formula One at least until 2012).
Team Superfund was yesterday invited by the FIA to bid for the vacant F1 spot – following BMW Sauber's exit – along with 6 other teams: Prodrive, Lola, March, Brabham, Lotus and Epsilon Euskadi. Until now, only the Spanish outfit has publicly expressed its desire to join the series.
However, there may be an ulterior motive for Wurz not to consider the FIA's offer. As reported by several media lately – and confirmed by himself – the Austrian driver has been offered a racing spot for 2010 by US F1, and he's very much considering it. According to British magazine Autosport, Pedro de la Rosa is also linked with a potential drive with the Charlotte-based team next year.
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