F1: Five prospective newcomers for 2010

Today, the rebelling FOTA (Formula 1 Teams Association) teams finally signed up for the new budget limited 2010 season and that includes Ferrari who were the most vociferous opponents to the new budget capped formula which was intended to limit each team to a maximum expditure of £40million.

Now though it seems a compromise has been reached with the 9 rebelling teams (Ferrari, McLaren, Toyota, BMW, Renault, Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Brawn & Force India) lodging their entries on the dependancy of a new Concorde Agreement being drafted on June 12th where it is likely that FOTA will be given more of a say in the settinG out of the rules. One of which they want to get rid of is the rule that would potentially introduce a so called "two tier formula." which would offer techincal incentives to teams that stayed within the budget cap like 4 wheel drive and larger engine rev limits. We should know more about the state of the sport after the concorde agreement has been finalised.

But most interestingly, the prospect of a cheaper formula has enticed some brand new teams to put themselves into the fray for 3 team spots on the grid which means for the first time since 1995, there is the possibility of a full 26 car field, one of which is a former F1 team itself on a number of occasions, i'll look at each newcomer here and assess their chances of making the grid

US GRAND PRIX ENGINEERING
Joint owners - Ken Anderson & Peter Windsor
Base - Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
This is an all american operation which has been in the pipeline from the minute the budget cap was first proposed, set up by Peter Windsor, a former Williams PR representative and Ken Anderson who is technical director for the Stewart-Haas NASCAR squad. They claim to have funding in place, a deal to run Cosworth engines has reportedly already been agreed and that the design of their 2010 challenger is already in full swing, they would prefer to have 2 american drivers to come in to drive although this is unlikely.
PROSPECTS - 10/10: With the team being the first to express their interest and already having nearly all of the building blocks in place, then they are dead certs to enter, budget cap or not.

LOLA
Owner - Martin Birrane
Base - Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, UK
The name Lola is already very familiar in F1 circles, they first entered in 1962 as a chassis supplier for the Reg Parnell team scoring some very competitive finishes, after that, customer deals followed with Graham Hill's tragically short lived team, Larrousse and for a limited time, Scuderia Italia in 1993, but it was in 1997 where Lola are most infamous for after a rushed package at the behest of their title sponsor Mastercard saw them fail to qualify for the opening race of 1997 and withdraw due to lack of funds afterwards. Now though they have a more solid footing and better technical knowhow after acting as chassis suppliers for several major open wheel championships and also press on well with an LMP1 coupe for Le Mans.
PROSPECTS - 8/10: Now run by the Irish billionaire Martin Birrane, Lola certainly have the funding and they also have the ambition and technical expertise, but their past may come back to haunt them when in competition with the others for places, still though a very strong candidate.

ASTON MARTIN/PRODRIVE
Owner: David Richards
Base: Banbury, Oxfordshire, UK
Arguably this is the most appealing and exciting of the entries to be submitted so far, and the man behind it has experience by the bucketload. David Richards, himself a former F1 team boss with Benetton (1997) and BAR (2001-2004) along with owning the Aston Martin brand also runs the motorsport company Prodrive which specialised in running the Subaru World Rally team which won world titles for the great Colin McRae (1995), Richard Burns (2001) and Petter Solberg (2003). Currently, Richards presides over Aston Martin's efforts in GT racing and in particular this years Le Mans 24 Hours which they have high hopes of winning outright after huge success in the lower GT1 category. From 2012 onwards, Prodrive will officially be renamed as part of Aston Martin's motorsport division.
PROSPECTS - 8/10: It may be the most appealing, but it definitely is not a certainty as it all depends on the budget cap being in place. Also like Lola, the past is not on their side as they failed in their attempts to enter in 2007 with a pair of customer McLaren cars. But if they were to succeed in entering, they would certainly earn themselves the support of the British public making them look like Britain's answer to "Ferrari", definitely the fans choice.

CAMPOS META FORMULA
Owner: Adrian Campos
Base: Valencia, Spain
Teams run by former drivers are a rarity nowadays which makes this prospect run by Adrian Campos (who drove in 21 Grand Prix for Minardi in 1987 and 88 before being replaced by Pierluigi Martini for suffering three DNQ's in a row) very exciting. He has though since then become a very successful team owner in the lower formulae with the highlight being a Spanish Formula Nissan championship for Marc Gene in 1998. After success in that and Spanish F3, he graduated his squad to the new GP2 series for 2005 and after 2 years of acting as the perennial backmarkers, they soon found their feet and went on to claim the GP2 teams championship in 2008 with 4 wins and 103 points before selling his GP2 operation to Alejandro Agag.
PROSPECTS - 8/10: Campos still runs his F3 operation and can count on his considerable wealth and connections in Spain to pull off a decently run outfit, there are question marks though about their initial ability to build an F1 car, hence why if they enter, they will go with a deal for Dallara to build customer F1 cars for them.

LITESPEED F1
Joint owners: Nino Judge & Steve Kenchington
Base: Besthorpe, Norfolk, UK
Litespeed are a bit of an unknown quantity, but they have big ambitions. The team was formed by Nino Judge in partnership with Steve Kenchington, themselves with experience in helipng run the Lotus F1 team in their demise in the early 1990s. At the moment, they are running and developing their own F3 chassis known as the SLC R1 but they are moving on to a more up to date Mygale for the rest of the 2009 season.
PROSPECTS - 5/10: Despite claiming to have the support of former F1 designer Mike Gascoyne and also have backing, they are the most unlikely of the 5 to get the nod, simply due to their size and apparent lack of initial funds.