By alley - Oct 30, 2014, 11:03 AM ET

F1: Will Caterham exit pull Forza Rossa entry forward?

ABOVE: Will Caterham be replaced by "Forza Rossa"?

Although Formula 1 start-up teams have been more notable for their failures than their successes in recent years, more than one contender remains in the pipeline. In addition to Gene Haas' Charlotte-based team, which remains on track for its 2016 debut,

Forza Rossa – the Romanian-based group which is believed to have a letter of intent from the FIA allowing it to enter a team within the next two years

– may have had its plans accelerated by the bankruptcy of the Caterham team.

Britain's

The Independent

reports that the documents filed in London's High Court in support of Caterham's administration proceedings included sworn testimony from Constantin Cojocar, a former professional soccer player who purchased Caterham Sports, which designs and builds cars for Caterham, last month. It says Cojocar claims that promised funding from Romanian investors was not forthcoming, which led to the chain of events culminating in bankruptcy administration filings for Caterham Sports and the race team’s operating company, 1Malaysia Racing Team.

Cojocar reportedly added that he bought Caterham Sports with the intention of it designing and building cars for Caterham and Forza Rossa, and that "Forza Rossa hopes to race in the 2015 season, but time to prepare is running short."

When its plans were first revealed back in June, it was understood Forza Rossa would be run by a team put together by Romanian Colin Kolles the former team principal at Midland/Spyker/Force India and HRT before he took over that role at Caterham, following that team's buyout deal of founding owner Tony Fernandes by Romanian management team Engavest – although Caterham group CEO Graham Macdonald claimed last week that Engavest had never actually paid for the team.

The project is led by former Romanian health minister Ion Bazac, who is also the country's Ferrari importer under the Forza Rossa banner. That fueled speculation that his team will have Ferrari engines, although Haas F1 Team's securing of a Ferrari technical partnership appears to have diminished that prospect.

On the other hand, if promised funding from Romanian sources for Caterham Sports never arrived, there is an obvious question mark as to whether it will for Forza Rossa, either. Time will tell.