Four weeks left for Campos and USF1

Virgin is already running, but when will we see US F1, Campos - or Stefan?

Today is Thursday February 11, and the significance is that in exactly four weeks the cars will be undergoing scrutineering checks in Bahrain.

It’s a scary statistic, and not just because I haven’t booked my flight yet. More importantly we still really don’t know how many teams we will see there. The saga over whether Campos Meta and US F1 will make it, or whether one of them will somehow be usurped by Stefan GP, continues to rumble on.

It took another curious twist yesterday afternoon when the FIA put out a statement reminding us that teams are obliged to take part in all events. Well, that’s what we’ve always thought, but in recent days both Bernie Ecclestone and Jean Todt have been quoted as saying that teams could miss three races. That gave Campos and US F1 some extra breathing space, even if physically getting to cars to China for the fourth race in April was going to be an expensive exercise in itself.

But then all of a sudden the FIA came up with this: “Following recent reports on the interpretation of clauses in the Concorde Agreement concerning the concept of a Team’s ‘participation’ in the FIA Formula One World Championship, the FIA wishes to make the following clarification: From a sporting and regulatory point of view, each Team that has registered for the Championship is obliged to take part in every event of the season. Any failure to take part, even for just one Championship event, would constitute an infringement both of the Concorde Agreement and the FIA Regulations.”

Well that’s pretty clear, and it’s how we’ve always understood things to be. But why did Bernie and Todt, the guys who should know, say something different? And where does it leave the two struggling teams, who one assumes, have (for who knows how long) been under the impression that they would be able to skip those races? Has there been a change of tactics to put pressure on those teams, and perhaps force an opening for Stefan GP?

Attempt to rescue Campos are ongoing – more on that in a later story – but the problem is that as I understand it, work on the car has pretty much been on hold in recent weeks, so Bahrain remains a distant target. Interesting times…