The FIA's World Motor Sport Council has rather unnecessarily fined the defunct USF1 team, and banned them from participating in FIA-sanctioned events in the future, after the team failed to make the 2010 grid.
The USF1 team announced plans to join Formula One back in February 2009, and was one of the four teams the FIA selected to join the sport for 2010, to boost the grid to the maximum of 13 teams.
But a winter of rumour and speculation over their financial and operational readiness proved to have been on the mark at the start of the 2010 season, when the team confirmed they would not be participating in the season opener in Bahrain.
The FIA removed them from the official entry list, and left the door open for further sanctions against them for breaching their contract.
A hearing at the WMSC in Paris saw USF1 representatives argue that the team had been forced to miss the season opener due to the mid-2009 war over the Concorde Agreement and the proposed budget cap for 2010.
The team also argued that their bid had been derailed after negative rumours about their readiness had put off sponsors.
But the FIA rejected the decision, and the WMSC said in a statement that: "The WMSC considered US F1 had cooperated fully with the FIA in its investigation, and had been entirely open in answering the questions of the Reporter.
"The WMSC however did not consider events of 'force majeure' were established in this case as there were no compelling supervening events but instead this was about a lack of funds.
"Nor did they accept statements from FOM [Formula One Management] had had any real material impact."
It went on: "Rather they considered that the team, whilst well-intentioned, had displayed poor financial management and had underestimated the requirement to present an F1 car for the 2010 season in the time and with the financial resources available to them.
"It was wholly unacceptable that the FIA was presented with only three weeks warning of the total non-appearance of the team at the Grand Prix in Bahrain and for the 2010 season, and WMSC members had real concerns about the impact on the championship, not least the deprivation of the opportunity for another team to have provided two cars to run in the championship in 2010 instead of US F1."
The fine for the team is 309,000 Euros, the entry fee for 2010, coupled with the FIA's legal fees.
Who will pay the fine is unclear, as the team officially closed its doors in April, and recently the administrators dealing with the Charlotte-based team auctioned off their remaining assets at auction.
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