AUGUST 3, 2009

Serbians go to EU over F1 selection process

There has been a rather odd story knocking about in recent days regarding a Serbian engineering company which says it is making a complaint to the European Union after its bid for an F1 entry was rejected by the FIA.

There has been a rather odd story knocking about in recent days regarding a Serbian engineering company which says it is making a complaint to the European Union after its bid for an F1 entry was rejected by the FIA. The AMCO Corporation in Belgrade says on its website that it builds prototypes and components for the automotive and aerospace industries and decided to participate in motorsport in order to develop its businesses, which have been going for nearly 100 years.

The company has now issued a press release in the name of Stefan Grand Prix which claims that it had all the ingredients required by the FIA and "secured the services" of Mike Coughlan as chief designer and several other experienced staff.

The company says that it believes its "rights for fair and equal competition are violated" and has asked the European Commission Competition Directorate to look at the FIA selection process, claiming that "we are forced into contract without our will, just to be

"eligible" for selection". SGP claims that it felt it was forced to sign a Cosworth contract in order to get an entry. It is calling for the selection process to be declared void and a new selection process held. This is obviously not going to happen in the time available.

The company is run by Zoran Stefanovic.