The governing body of Formula 1, the FIA, have announced that there will be no additional teams on the grid in 2016 having dismissed the credentials of two outfits that wanted to join the series.
Although no names have been given out about the two teams, neither are believed to be top line junior team ART Grand Prix, who have been heavily linked to joining the grid in recent months.
The FIA had announced that they were opening up the opportunity to teams to join F1, but this decision ends the chance of any additional entries for the 2016 season. The lack of any new teams joining Formula 1 means the current ten outfits, plus the Haas F1 Team, will be the only teams on the grid in 2016, meaning twenty-two entries per Grand Prix.
“We can confirm that the FIA received two candidate Formula 1 team applications for vacant grid slots,” said an FIA spokesman.
“We subsequently put these through our comprehensive diligence processes.
“Unfortunately none of the applicants were able to meet the FIA’s criteria for new teams despite being granted every opportunity of doing so, and we now consider this round of applications to be closed.”