Formula One¿s Arrows look set to miss a third successive race in Italy this weekend as owner Tom Walkinshaw battles to save his team.
As the rest of the teams continued their preparations for the final European race of the season, the Arrows trucks were conspicuous by their absence from the paddock in Monza.
The trucks were tonight understood to still be at the factory at Leafield in Oxfordshire, leaving them little time to make the trip to Monza for scrutineering tomorrow afternoon.
Arrows could apply for a postponement of scrutineering until Friday but it seems likely that they will miss the race as they did in Hungary and Belgium. The team also failed to qualify for the French Grand Prix.
Walkinshaw claimed force majeure - or unavoidable circumstances - at the last race in Belgium a fortnight ago, saying the paperwork for a deal to sell the team to an American billionaire, named as Carl W Smith, could not be completed in time.
FIA, the sport's world governing body, reacted to the team's decision to return home from Spa-Francorchamps by calling for an explanation.
Arrows did contact FIA which, whilst not wanting the saga to drag on, do not want to see another F1 team go bust just nine months after Prost went bankrupt.
The patience of FIA is beginning to be tested but the governing body are also mindful of the fact that a couple of hundred jobs are at stake.
Arrows won another stay of execution yesterday when Leeds Crown Court agreed to postpone any hearing concerning the team's future for 28 days following a winding-up order by Champion Recruitment Ltd.
But it is understood at least four other individuals or parties are pursuing winding-up orders including former drivers Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jos Verstappen.
Frentzen, who quit the team in July because of the financial uncertainty, is reported to be owed £85,000 while Verstappen is believed to be claiming £1.7million saying Walkinshaw did not honour a contract to drive for them this year.
A spokeswoman for Arrows could not be contacted tonight.