The Stefan GP team are still on target for a 2010 grid spot that doesn't exist for them, as the team announced that they had a new 2010 car, the S-01, bought from Toyota, which will undergo FIA crash testing throughout January.
The team said that the S-01 will go through the same rigorous crash testing that every 2010 entrant will need to pass, and remain committed to getting into F1, even if they have to go testing in 2010 and hope that a space on the grid opens up for 2011.
The car has already passed a number of crash tests as mandated by the FIA.
The S-01 design is believed to be the 2010 car that would have been run by Toyota in 2010, before their withdrawal from the sport, with Stefan GP having negotiated a deal to buy the designs from them.
"[The] car will undergo full FIA tests as scheduled by the end of January 2010," a statement from the team confirmed about the S-01.
Should Stefan GP have to sit out 2010 and embark on a full testing programme instead, the team plans to use the fact that it would still be outside the restrictive testing bans in place on F1 to it's advantage.
The team plans to set up a young driver development programme, but also effectively 'sell' tests of their cars to drivers or teams that wanted to run an F1 car.
"We will offer teams, who are changing drivers during the season, or even young drivers themselves, the chance to test our car so they can gain experience," the Stefan GP boss Zoran Stefanovic told Autosport, "It will be purely a commercial operation."
The team will hope that this drive-selling will help to fund their 2010 testing campaign, should they fail to find a way of getting onto the grid proper.
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