Super Aguri 'still planning' 2006 entry.

The Super Aguri Formula One team is 'still planning' an entry into the 2006 Formula One World Championship, despite not being named on the official entry list published by the FIA.

Although a spokesman for F1's governing body told the BBC that the team had been notified 'that their application has been refused' - with rumours suggesting that it could be down to a failure to put together the $48 million deposit required - it appears likely that work will continue in putting together a team with the aim being to take a place on the grid for the first race of the new season in Bahrain on 12 March.

The team has already moved into the former Arrows base at Leafield while Mark Preston, who learnt the F1 ropes with both Arrows and McLaren and was planning to try and put together his own F1 team under the Preston Racing banner, had been taken on as chief technical officer and was in the process of putting the team together.

A supply of Honda V8 engines were already lined up, while the team had presented a request to Bridgestone to supply tyres, which a spokesman told Crash.net last month was 'being studied in a forward-looking manner'.

A number of sponsors were also believed to be on board although the main question mark - and possibly one which has proved to be a contributing factor in the team missing out on an entry - was where the team's chassis was coming from, with a variety of possibilities suggested.

The first option for the team appeared to be to run its own development of BAR's 2005 chassis, although reports have also suggested that the team was investigating the possibility of buying four-year old Arrows cars from former Minardi boss Paul Stoddart.

However, while the chassis plans remain unclear, a spokesman for the Super Aguri team told Crash.net that the team was still hoping to have its 'Aguri' car in F1 next season.

"We still intend to make our entry in 2006," he said. "We are in process of applying for the late entry."

Whether or not that application proves to be successful remains to be seen, and could be dependent on the other F1 teams allowing them to take a place on the grid - with regulations stating that, if the FIA were happy with a late entry, there would still need to be unanimous support from the other competing teams before Super Aguri team was able to enter F1.