The latest round of rumours over the exact makeup of the 2010 grid have linked the car-less USF1 team with a Chad Hurley-organised merger with the entry-less Stefan GP team, in the nick of time for them to make the grid in Bahrain.
The merger would seem to be a logical step, with USF1 holding a precious entry for the 2010 championship, but unable to have a car ready in time for Bahrain, or potentially the whole season, while Stefan GP have a car and a budget, but no entry.
Hurley's advisors are currently in Europe, and he has been linked with a move to the Campos team, abandoning the USF1 project to it's fate. But a USF1 insider said earlier this week that Hurley was working on a rescue deal for the American team.
The merger may well be a preferable result for the FIA, who could avoid having to deal with the legal machinations of a probable USF1 withdrawal and subsequent bidding process over the vacant grid slot.
Official news on the planned merger is thin on the ground, but Stefan GP have already signed Kazuki Nakajima for 2010, and are said to be close to a deal with 1997 champion Jacques Villeneuve for the other seat. After USF1 failed in their efforts to build an all-American team, the French-Canadian might end up being a happy compromise.
USF1 co-founders Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson are reported to be unhappy about a potential merger, with the team likely to relocate to the better-stocked HQ of Stefan GP in Cologne rather than remain on the other side of the Atlantic, but with Hurley being the team's only remaining real backer, they are not thought to have been given much choice on the matter.
The USF1 team were visited by FIA representative Charlie Whiting earlier in the week to assess the team's ongoing viability.
Reports from the BBC yesterday suggested that the team had no race team in place, with only one mechanic on the books, and it looks increasingly likely that the team will have no option but to attach themselves to the far more prepared Serbian outfit.
Nobody from either Stefan GP or USF1 have yet commented on the rumours.
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