Patronise F1

One of the most evocative marques in motoring could grace the F1 grid in 2011, after Aston Martin owner David Richards shored up his entry into next years championship with his Prodrive team.

Richards, who formerly "graced" the F1 pit lane as team principal at BAR and team director at Benetton, lodged his entry for the new season late last night, becoming the fourth team to confirm their plans for the new, budget-capped F1 era. New teams Campos Racing and USF1, along with current team Williams have also added their name to the so far rather empty-looking list.

The team reportedly has plans to run as Prodrive in 2010, but Richards, who is part of the consortium that owns the company, apparently wants to rebadge his team as Aston Martin "by 2012". A similar rumour did the rounds during Richards' attempt to get into F1 two years ago.

Despite it's motorsport pedigree, Aston Martin has only a limited pedigree in F1, with a sporadic series of entries in the late 1950s with their DBR4 and DBR5 models the only time the badge has graced the grid. Two sixth placed finishes for British driver Roy Salvadori in 1958 were the best results of the campaign.

Richards will be hoping his bid for a spot on the grid is accepted, after his earlier plan to run effectively a McLaren "B" team in 2008 were refused by the FIA over the ongoing grey area issue of customer cars. However this new effort will retain McLaren backing, in the form of a technical partnership.

Should Richards look to source Mercedes engines for his team through this partnership, the current Mercedes engine deals with Force India and Brawn GP may prove a sticking point.

Richards has picked up finance for his F1 dawdle from the same Kuwait-based investment company that helped finance his buyout of Aston in the first place back in 2007.

The prospect of having a famous British(ish) marque present on the grid in the near future may well fill some traditionalists with a sense of foreboding, after the disastrous Jaguar rebranding of Jackie Stewart's team at the start of the 2000 season. Jaguar remained in F1 for five dreadful seasons, achieving very little along the way.

Today marks the last chance for teams to lodge their 2010 season entries without paying a late entry fine, though it remains to be seen how many of the current crop of F1 teams sign up, with the politicising over the rules still ongoing.

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