The FIA have reportedly rejected the USF1 team's desperate request to delay their entry into the Formula One championship until 2011, as the governing body promises that the definitive 2010 entry list will be published "soon".
A report in Germany's Auto Motor und Sport has claimed that the governing body has rejected the request to defer the USF1 entry out of hand, and are now merely mulling over whether or not to accept the Stefan GP entry as a 13th team in 2010, with the start of the season now just over a week away.
The move from the FIA, if confirmed, would finally draw a line under the USF1 team, with team principal Ken Anderson telling the BBC on Wednesday that if the FIA rejects their request then "we are done".
But Anderson was adamant that FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting, who visited their Charlotte HQ last week, had been "happy" with their operation.
"He looked at the factory and was happy that we've got all we need to make a perfectly good Formula 1 car," Anderson insisted, "We're on hold. Our future's in the hands of the FIA. There were issues sponsor-wise in January that knocked us back a few weeks, and those meant we couldn't make it in 2010.
"We put our entry in with the FIA in December 2008 and wanted to start work on the car in March 2009, but the delay in signing the Concorde Agreement until July meant we couldn't start until August. We were on course, despite an insanely tight schedule, but then people got cold feet."
Meanwhile, F1 oligarch Bernie Ecclestone insisted that the Stefan GP team could be fast-tracked through onto the grid without the need for the normal long and tedious tendering process.
"As far I know, Stefan GP could race in Bahrain," Ecclestone shrugged, "Yet you should not believe everything you hear because we don't want the opposite to come true.
"The FIA will conduct a business review, and if positive, Stefan GP might get off the line in Bahrain."
He added that the Stefan move would not require the agreement of the other F1 teams, saying: "This has nothing to do with the others. It is entirely up to the FIA to say yes or no."
When asked about the timescale for the official 2010 entry list to finally be confirmed, an FIA spokesman simply said that a statement would be made "soon".
"When we are in a position to make a definitive statement, we will," the spokesman added.
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