Bernie could support Aguri

It is a remote possibility that the formula one grid will still feature an eleventh team in 2006. Although the FIA left Japan's 'Super Aguri' off the official entry list, the existing ten teams could – as they did when Williams missed the entry deadline in 1993 – agree to let their new rival race.

Indeed, an 'insider' – with links to Bernie Ecclestone – hinted that the 75-year-old F1 supremo could convince the ten bosses to signal a green light.

''If Bernie wants Suzuki to race,'' the insider told Germany's 'Auto, Motor und Sport', ''he will get them to agree.''

Moreover, it is suggested elsewhere that Ecclestone will vigorously defend Aguri Suzuki's late 2006 application, especially if it only failed to lodge a bit of paperwork.

The reported absence of the mandatory $48 million FIA bond, however, might be a more serious transgression to overlook, speculation suggests.