FIA President Jean Todt said that he "has not had any offers he deems serious from interested parties wishing to enter Formula 1 in the future," according to Lawrence Barretto of MOTORSPORT. Earlier this year, Zoran Stefanović revealed plans for a second attempt to enter a team for '19, having previously tried to enter as Stefan GP. There are reportedly "several parties, including a group from China, that are evaluating entering F1." Though Todt has had contact from interested candidates, he has seen "nothing serious enough to warrant the FIA opening a tender for an additional slot on the grid." When asked if he had any "reasonable offers," Todt said, "Not something I will comment as a very serious offer. When we will see there is some serious offer, as we did, when Haas came to Formula 1, we understood there was some serious interest so we created a tender" (MOTORSPORT, 9/6).
'BIG STRUGGLE': SKY SPORTS' Jonathan Green reported F1 teams are facing a "big struggle" to make '18 winter testing following FIA's "late decision to introduce the Halo next season," according to Force India Technical Dir Andrew Green. FIA announced in July that the halo, rather than the shield, would be mandatory on cars in '18 and the cockpit protection device will be an "integral part of the chassis structure." Green revealed at the Belgian Grand Prix that Force India's design work is "weeks behind schedule," and he thinks there is a "big chance some teams will be absent from the Barcelona tests," the first of which gets underway on Feb. 26. Green: "It is going to be a big struggle to get to winter testing. It's a big risk teams won't make it" (SKY SPORTS, 9/6).
