FIA decides on 12 teams for 2008

A public announcement revealing the elected outfits, however, will not be made until next week.

The FIA have spent the last week examining details of the 22 teams that lodged their applications last month in a bid to finalise their entry list.

Although an information-gathering meeting with all the prospective entrants, scheduled for shortly after the Australian Grand Prix, had to be cancelled, the FIA subsequently asked for details from each team about their plans, including infrastructure and budget projections, for 2008.

These dossiers had to be delivered to the FIA by the middle of last week and, following examination of that information, the decision has now been taken about who will be on the list.

Although the 12 successful teams have not yet been informed about their entries, sources have revealed that those outfits whose entries have been rejected have been written to.

Autosport.com understands that all of the current 11 teams have been granted an entry to the 2008 championship - which means that just one slot is available for a new team.

The favourite outfit to grab that position is David Richards' Prodrive organisation, who are hoping to base their F1 team at a new factory they are building at Honiley in Warwickshire.

Prodrive certainly appear to be ramping up their plans for 2008. According to a report in this week's Autosport, Prodrive are chasing a deal for customer Cosworth engines for 2008 in their bid to be as competitive as possible for their entry.

Richards said: "We're entirely serious about this. Most other people have applied by the seat of their pants, but we have had meetings with Bernie Ecclestone and other very senior figures.

"But there's no point in wasting a lot of energy and expense until we hear."

Richards was unavailable for comment on Thursday, however, to confirm whether his team had been granted the entry.

The other strong contender for the 12th slot is Carlin Motorsport, who had hoped to base their operation out of the old Penske factory at Poole in Dorset, which they are planning to buy.

Team boss Trevor Carlin was also unavailable for comment but told autosport.com last week that his entry did have the blessing of FIA president Max Mosley - who has been in close contact with the team about their F1 aspirations.

"I spoke to Max before we put the entry in," said Carlin. "I had the entry form on my desk, and I sent him a fax saying I was going to call him to outline our plans that afternoon, because I knew he was going to be in the office.

"I wanted to ask him if I was going to waste my time or his time or not, and he actually called us. He said, 'no, I would like you to do it. We feel that you are one of the right teams for this and please put your entry in.' That was it. We sent it off and now we are waiting."

The official entry list for 2008 will be published by the FIA on April 28, in a bid to allow those teams who are competing a chance to join discussions aimed at framing the rules package for that season.