Durango, the Italian-based racing team who are currently competing in GP2, have been officially acknowledged by the FIA as a candidate for entry onto the 2011 F1 grid.
The team are hoping to take the place originally allocated to USF1, who failed to secure sufficient financial backing to make it to the grid this season.
Team boss Ivone Pinton says that Durango will have no such problems even though they did have to pull out of the recent GP2 Asia series with lack of funds. “After all the wrong things happened last season we tried our best to look for new partners in our racing activity. It did not get too long to understand that the interest could be arose just about Formula 1 and nothing else. So we pushed towards this direction and I can say that, to enter F1, we can now enjoy the backing of two very big international groups.”
Pinton emphasises that the team are only in the evaluation stage, and entrance to the 2011 world championship is far from certain. “[We’re] keeping the feet on the ground as we say in Italy, because up till now this is just a serious attempt, I like to consider that after so many years spent to push the young drivers to became future champions now the time has come to strongly push towards the motorsport pinnacle Durango as a team”.
