The increasingly surreal list of prospective entries for the 2010 F1 world championship gained another member today, as it was revealed that a new team led by Alexander Wurz, Team Superfund, have also lodged an entry.
As the F1 grid threatens to lose all credulity from 2010 onwards, this new team joins the other new teams of Lola, Prodrive, Campos Racing, USF1 and Litespeed in fighting it out for one of the three grid spots available. Wurz has been named as the team principal of this new organisation, while funding for the operation will come from Austrain businessman Christian Baha.The announcement of this new venture also confirmed that the team would use the new standard Cosworth engine for 2010.
The surprise announcement of this previously unheard-of entry seems to be largely down to the fact that, although Superfund have been in discussions with the FIA over an entry for some time, the team is waiting until it is confirmed as a 2010 entrant before organising staff and facilities, as well as dwelling on the results of the talks over the Formula One Teams' Association proposal to introduce technical support between the current F1 teams and new entrants.
Wurz in particular seems to want to align the team with one of the teams already on the grid, potentially renting factory space and staff members from the team intially, while the team builds their own HQ.
Wurz has plenty of links with the current F1 paddock that he could use to develop any technical links for the team, currently employed as Brawn GP's test driver after filling the same role at Honda, and last racing for Williams back in 2007.
The team would apparently have the resources to power through by themselves though, should that be necessary.
Baha's Superfund brand has plenty of links with motorsport down the years through sponsorship programmes, and he attempted to introduce a 'Formula Superfund' junior category in Europe in the mid 2000s, though the effort spectacularly failed to get off the ground.
The definitive 13-team entry list for the 2010 season will be published by the FIA on June 12th.
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