A week ahead of the deadline for applications for the 2011 reserve team slot, Italian team Durango has revealed that its request for consideration has been acknowledged by the FIA.

Last month, the FIA opened a new selection process to identify a candidate team to fill any vacancy that may exist in the FIA Formula One World Championship at the start of the 2011 season. At the same time it announced that it might identify one or more possible 'reserve' entrants to fill such vacancies.

In a brief statement issued this evening, Durango, which was founded in 1980 by Ivone Pinton and Enrico Magro and has competed in GP2, European Formula Renault, F3000 and at Le Mans, and will contest the new Auto GP series this season, read as follows:

"Durango has been officially acknowledged by the FIA as candidate for the valuation process for the selection of a new Formula 1 team for the 2011 World Championship.

"This entry is the result of the marketing job, done during the last months , by the real Durango 'engine' Ivone Pinton who declared: "After all the wrong things happened last season we tried our best to look for new partners in our racing activity. It did not get too long to understand that the interest could be arose just about Formula 1 and nothing else. So we pushed towards this direction and I can say that, to enter F1, we can now enjoy the backing of two very big international groups. So even keeping the feet on the ground as we say in Italy, because up till now this is just a serious attempt, I like to consider that after so many years spent to push the young drivers to became future champions now the time has come to strongly push towards the motorsport pinnacle Durango as a team"