With one swift retort, Colin Kolles extinguished rumours that the Jacques Villeneuve/Durango venture might be rescued by struggling F1 team HRT.

After the alliance missed out on the 13th team entry for 2011, 1997 world champion Villeneuve said another potential route onto next year’s grid was to buy an existing outfit.

The most affordable would most certainly be Hispania Racing, slowest on the 2010 grid and reportedly struggling for survival.

“To be honest, I’m really speechless that you believe this speculation,” said team boss Kolles, when also asked in Singapore about speculation linking HRT with Stefan GP.

“Why should I answer you if you mention the name Durango and the people you just mentioned before?  I cannot make any comment because I never spoke to these people,” he added.

Villeneuve also responded to the speculation on Friday, in conversation with the French Canadian publication Rue Frontenac.

“We have not yet made a formal bid for an F1 team at all,” said the 39-year-old.

“As the deadlines are less pressing than those imposed by the FIA, we are evaluating all our options before making a final decision,” added Villeneuve.

He admitted that turning his attention to NASCAR is perhaps now the most likely outcome.

“We are looking at how the funds that would have been for the F1 side can be transferred to North America to develop a programme in NASCAR,” said the Canadian.

Zoran Stefanovic could be looking at yet another route onto the formula one grid.

With his Stefan GP project, the Serbian first tried to gain entry to the 2010 grid with the unraced Toyota car, and reportedly then gave up his push for the 13th 2011 entry due to the FIA selection process taking too long.

Now, according to Italy’s 422race.com, Stefanovic could be among the group of Serbian and Czech entrepreneurs apparently looking to buy the struggling Spanish team HRT.

“No comment,” he said when faced with the rumour.

Talk that HRT could merge with Epsilon Euskadi has been ruled out, and 422race.com believes the Spanish Le Mans team in fact only lodged a 2011 team entry for “some exposure”.

The Stefanovic/HRT link would therefore tie in with the Serbian’s familiarity with Cologne based Toyota Motorsport, who were thought already close to securing a technical collaboration with Hispania for 2011.

But in recent days, it has been rumoured that Lotus may in fact be set to tie up with Toyota instead.

A Toyota source said: “Toyota and Lotus? Not in a million years. We are still talking to HRT.”

Stefan GP pulled out of the running for the 13th team entry for 2011 because the FIA’s selection process was too slow.

That is the view of Zoran Stefanovic, who after missing out on a place on this year’s grid vowed to try again for the 2011 season.

Alongside other contenders including Villeneuve/Durango and Epsilon Euskadi, the Serbian outfit tackled the initial stages of the selection process, but ultimately pulled out in August.

“We had applied at the beginning but we found out that the process was too long and it didn’t give us assurances on the time when someone will be chosen as the 13th team,” Stefanovic told f1pulse.com.

When the FIA invited expressions of interest for the 13th place in March, the governing body said its decision would be made in July.

But the decision, with the FIA ultimately ruling that the team place should be left open, was made only this month.

Stefanovic said September is “too late to go in and design a car for next year”.

“We think it (the process) should be faster and we think it’s necessary to have a 13th team,” he added.

Contrary to the ‘plan B’ announced by Jacques Villeneuve, Stefanovic said he is not currently contemplating taking over an existing team.

“At the moment we are not doing that thing specifically,” he said. “We will see in the future what we can do.”

Toyota was reportedly heading for a competitive season in formula one this year until the Japanese carmaker decided to pull out of the sport altogether.

The Cologne based team had completed its 2010 car, dubbed the TF110, when the shock decision to withdraw at the end of last season was made.

Timo Glock, now at the back of the grid with Virgin, has said earlier this year that – according to the data – he might currently be fighting for the 2010 title had Toyota stayed another season in F1.

“When we stopped the development, we had 20 to 30 points more downforce (with the new car) than the last version of its predecessor,” Toyota’s technical Pascal Vasselon has told Auto Bild in Germany.

“We had far exceeded our goals, for even the TF109 was good enough for podiums,” he added.

“Many of our aerodynamic people have changed to other top teams and we know that our downforce values were quite high,” said Vasselon.

Leaked photos of the unraced TF110, which would have been used by the unsuccessful 2010 applicant Stefan GP this year, depict it with a very high nose.

“I dare to suggest that we would have had the highest nose of all the current cars,” Vasselon confirmed.  “Only in this way would the diffuser operate perfectly.”

He said other aspects of the 2010 design were also “extreme”.

“For the first race, we had an update package with the blown diffuser in the pipeline.  So with Red Bull we would have been the first,” said Vasselon.

It is now rumoured that HRT is close to a deal to base its 2011 car on the TF110.

“We would convert the car to match the new rules, and also provide aerodynamic updates,” said Toyota Motorsport’s development manager Jens Marquardt.

Joan Villadelprat is eager for the FIA to make its decision about the identity of F1′s thirteenth team for 2011.

The formula one veteran, who has worked at Tyrrell, McLaren, Ferrari, Benetton and Prost, is now pushing to bring his own Le Mans prototype and junior single seaters team Epsilon Euskadi onto the grid.

It is believed the Azkoitia-based outfit is in competition with Villeneuve/Durango and Stefan GP, but it is also possible that the governing body will deem none of the applicants worthy of the 13th place.

It is also rumoured that many more than the three aforementioned projects are still officially in the running for the entry.

“We are already working with our wind tunnel model,” Villadelprat is quoted by the Italian language Al Volante.

“From the economic point of view we have an interesting budget but not yet what I would want to have for the formula one programme.

“Before investing a lot of money, our possible partners want to be sure that we have been chosen (by the FIA), but this (situation) will end in August,” he added.

Indeed, the FIA’s decision about the 13th team entry is due late this month.

Jacques Villeneuve has admitted to being annoyed that his plans for a formula one team were publicly leaked.

The 1997 world champion is bidding to re-enter the sport as a constructor next year in collaboration with the Italian former GP2 outfit Durango.

But Germany’s Auto Bild quoted Villeneuve, 39, as indicating he sees it as an unfair advantage that his opponents for the 13th team entry have not been similarly outed.

It is believed the only other contenders for the grid space are Stefan GP and Epsilon Euskadi.

But the French Canadian said: “I have no idea who or what we are fighting against.

“Everything was kept quiet and we were happy with it that way.  But someone who is not even part of the project decided to talk about it.  That’s pretty annoying.

“I can’t really say anything, because we don’t have all the facts yet,” added Villeneuve.

Earlier, he was quoted as saying Epsilon Euskadi’s declaration that it is testing a wind tunnel model of its 2011 car is like “putting the cart before the horse”.

He also refused to confirm or deny reports that the three 2011 hopefuls have been summoned to an interview later this week with the FIA in Paris.

But Villeneuve did confirm that he is no longer affiliated with Stefan GP.

Pastor Maldonado’s manager has refused to deny rumours he is in talks about a race seat at Sauber for 2011.

Earlier this year, the Venezuelan GP2 driver was linked with Pedro de la Rosa’s place at Sauber, and more recently it emerged the 25-year-old’s main sponsor PDVSA is pushing for a presence on the formula one grid.

Maldonado, who came close to signing with Stefan GP for the 2010 season, is managed by Felipe Massa’s manager Nicolas Todt.

When asked about the Sauber rumours, Frenchman Todt answered: “I don’t want to go into details, but obviously I’m talking to a few teams about next year for both drivers.”

The other driver referred to by Todt in the 422race.com interview was Jules Bianchi, a front-running GP2 driver who has a development contract with Ferrari.

Todt-managed Bianchi is currently recovering from a back injury sustained in the recent support-race in Hungary.

But Todt, boss of the GP2 team ART and the son of FIA president Jean Todt, said it is possible Bianchi will be on F1′s 2011 grid.

“Jules is still young, he has two years of open wheels behind him, which is very little, but he is a very big talent and if he has the chance to do formula one next year, he has to take it,” he said.

Todt was also asked about the lingering rumours about his plans to merge his GP2 team with an existing F1 outfit.

“It’s still very early and it’s hard to say,” he answered.

“One or two” of F1′s existing twelve teams might bow out of formula one before November’s Abu Dhabi finale, Bernie Ecclestone has warned.

“I think there are a couple of teams in formula one who really shouldn’t be there. They are a bit out of their depth at the moment,” he said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

Losing two teams would drop the grid down to 20 cars, but the FIA is in the process of perhaps allowing Villeneuve/Durango, Epsilon Euskadi, Stefan GP or Cypher Group to debut next year.

But Ecclestone insisted: “All we ever want is 10 teams. Lotus is a good name. I wouldn’t want to lose them. But in general this year has been a bit of a nuisance because it has cost money to keep these (new) teams in.

“It has cost a lot of money to pay for them to compete.”

It is likely the Briton is referring to HRT, who are now shuffling around drivers with the deepest pockets for the two race seats, and Virgin, whose main sponsor Sir Richard Branson said last year the team would have F1′s smallest budget.

“The bottom line is they haven’t really and truly given us value for being there,” said Ecclestone.

“If suddenly these teams don’t turn up at races then I don’t think the crowds will get any smaller, or the TV sets will turn off, or the newspapers will stop writing, will they?” he added.

It is possible that formula one’s 13th and final team place for 2011 will not be filled.

It has emerged that Villeneuve Racing/Durango, Epsilon Euskadi and Stefan GP are all vying for the grid berth, but Italy’s 422race.com indicates that the FIA could actually leave the position vacant.

The website said the decision “will be down to money”, with the successful team needing to provide “an economic guarantee”.

It emerged a few days ago that Bernie Ecclestone wants a 16 million British pound deposit from the 13th team.

That deposit could be avoided, however, if the new team buys one of the existing teams, with the F1 chief executive admitting he is “not happy” with the performance of some of this year’s new outfits.

Autosprint magazine in Italy said Ecclestone’s attitude about the 13th team has been hardened by “the USF1 experience”.

It is now expected that the FIA’s decision about the 13th team place will not be made until late August.

The American outfit Cypher Group on Thursday confirmed it is vying for the final place on the 2011 formula one grid.

A flutter of activity on Twitter earlier this week revealed that the hopeful outfit is in talks with 22-year-old Indy Lights driver and American Jonathan Summerton.

“They (Cypher) have applied and (I’m) pretty sure things are looking good,” he said.

With the withdrawn application of the GP2 team ART, it is expected that Cypher is in contention for the 13th team place with Epsilon Euskadi and Stefan GP.

“We aspire to bring America’s red, white, and blue back into formula one,” said part of Cypher’s Thursday statement.

The group also confirmed that it will potentially collaborate with Summerton.

GP2 championship leader Pastor Maldonado claims Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez wants him to debut in formula one.

The well-sponsored 25-year-old has been linked with F1 seats several times, including when he was close to inking a deal with the hopeful Serbian outfit Stefan GP.

“We were nearly ready to sign … but at the end it didn’t get an entry,” he told Reuters at Valencia on Friday.

The news agency said Maldonado is backed by the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.

“Venezuela is pushing very hard for me, to have me in formula one,” he confirmed.  “All my sponsors are from Venezuela so that’s a big support.

“He (Chavez) is pushing.  I know that,” Maldonado, also a contender for a Campos/HRT seat in 2010, added.

He said president Chavez is also interested in hosting a grand prix, possibly off the northeastern coast of the country on Margarita Island.

Jun.16 (GMM)  Jacques Villeneuve has admitted he is not yet in talks with any teams about making a return to formula one.

The French Canadian, who came close to driving for the hopeful Serbian outfit Stefan GP this season, said last weekend he will make a final effort to find a seat for 2011.

“I am working on it more than ever, and for that reason I have postponed a participation in the NASCAR circuit,” 1997 world champion Villeneuve, who turns 40 early next year, said in an interview with Austria’s Salzburger Nachrichten.

Stefan GP, however, seems unlikely to be on the grid any time soon, and Renault team boss Eric Boullier said recently that he is not interested in signing Villeneuve.

Asked if there are already “concrete negotiations” with any teams, he answered: “No, nothing concrete, because it’s too early in the season.

“There are some positive contacts.  If the Stefan project had worked out, I would be driving in F1 already this year.”

Villeneuve acknowledged that a place with a top team is not initially likely.

“I have a longer term plan,” he said.  “The most important thing is to get inside, and then you can look around and find the right place.”

Jun.14 (GMM) Jacques Villeneuve is unlikely to find a seat for his formula one return with the Renault team.

The boss of the Enstone based outfit, Eric Boullier, says he respects the 1997 world champion but thinks he will struggle to be accommodated with a top team.

French Canadian Villeneuve, 39, came close to returning to F1 this year with Stefan GP, and has announced he will try again to find a seat in 2011.

He is reportedly close to Renault’s team owner Gerard Lopez and shareholder Eric Lux, and the related Gravity Sport Management.

“Jacques is a world champion and a driver of exceptional talent for whom I have great respect,” Boullier is quoted by Canada’s Rue Frontenac.

“There is no doubt he could help a team looking for a driver with his profile. This was not the case for us,” he explained.

Boullier thinks Villeneuve, who has not raced in F1 since losing his BMW seat in 2006, would struggle if he came back.

“The current regulations that limit private testing greatly affect the potential return of a non-active driver.

“A driver who leaves competition loses his normal speed, his reflexes are a bit dulled as are his physical abilities to take the car to its maximum potential.

“That’s just natural. Whatever you do in sports, the specific skills needed to race in F1 must be constantly maintained,” he added.

Jun.11 (GMM)  Jacques Villeneuve says he will make one final effort and then give up trying to return to formula one.

The 1997 world champion was reportedly high on the list for a Stefan GP seat this season, but the Serbian outfit was not granted an official entry to race the 2010-specification Toyota car.

French Canadian Villeneuve, who last raced in F1 with BMW in 2006, turns 40 early next season, and he told reporters on Thursday that 2011 will be his last-ditch effort to come back.

“I’m quite happy right now being busy raising kids,” he said at a road safety event near Montreal alongside his former title nemesis Michael Schumacher.

“I would obviously be happier behind a wheel.  Once you’ve been a racer, I think you’re a racer all your life.

“I worked hard on (trying to return to F1 for) 2010.  I’m giving myself until 2011.  There’s still a few months,” added Villeneuve.

The assembled reporters laughed after asking Schumacher, who retired in 2006 but returned to F1 full-time with Mercedes this year, if he thinks it is a good idea if Villeneuve also comes back.

“I don’t know what is funny about that,” said the German.

“The point is, as Jacques was saying, we are racers, and we have that in our blood.  So, what you have there, you always keep.”

Villeneuve admits it is a difficult task trying to convince F1 bosses to give him another chance.

“The teams don’t want to take a risk.  There comes a point where you’ve been out for too long and the teams just won’t give you a chance,” he said.

The French GP2 outfit ART Grand Prix is bidding to become the thirteenth team on the 2011 formula one grid.

“Yes, we have applied to join the world championship in 2011,” Frederic Vasseur, co-founder, confirmed to France’s Auto Hebdo.

The team is also headed by Nicolas Todt, son of FIA president Jean Todt and manager of the Ferrari driver Felipe Massa.

ART also races in F3 Euroseries and GP3.

Expressions of interest for the 13th place closed on April 15, and the FIA is said to be moving towards a final decision by July.

“We did not want to confirm our willingness to engage in formula one until now, to best prepare for this very complex issue and not compromise our current activities,” Vasseur added.

Vasseur also said the existing F1 teams have been informed “of our intentions”, adding that he has “good relationships with Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault”.

“The choice of engine is not yet defined,” he insisted.

Auto Hebdo said Epsilon Euskadi, Durango and Stefan GP are also bidding for the last place in the 2011 pitlane.

(GMM)