TWO companies at the heart of Oxfordshire’s so-called Motorsport Valley have applied to join the sport’s elite on the 2010 Formula One grid.

Both Prodrive of Banbury, which employs about 500 people and has a £100m annual turnover, and the new Brabham Grand Prix team at Leafield Technical Centre — once home to former F1 teams Arrows and Super Aguri — have applied to the FIA, the sport’s governing body, for coveted places on the new 13-strong grid.

Winners and losers are due to be announced tomorrow (Friday) but the race for places is mired in contraversy.

The FIA has this year imposed a spending limit of £40m on teams entering the 2010 championships — which has caused a stand-off betweens those teams accepting the cap and those rejecting it.

Prodrive chief executive David Richards said: “We now feel the conditions are right to formally request the FIA for an entry. The level of next year’s cost cap has risen substantially since we originally considered entering.

“However, everyone appears committed to major reductions in future years and when one takes into account the transition proposals for new teams, we are confident that we now have the opportunity to be both commercially viable and competitive.”

Over at Leafield, Brabham would only say: “At the moment we are not able to give more details on the F1 project because we have to wait for the results of the FIA process, which finishes on June 12.”

Brabham Grand Prix is backed by German entrepreneur Franz Hilmer, who already owns motor-technology firm Formtech, based at Leafield.

He is understood to have bought the rights to the famous Brabham name, though the family of three-times world champion Sir Jack Brabham, now 83, are considering legal action over their name being used for the team.

In a statement, Brabham Enterprises said: “The family are taking legal advice and will take necessary steps to protect their name, reputation, and their goodwill.”

Williams F1 at Grove, near Wantage, and Force India at Silverstone are the only two teams to have accepted the F1’s £40m cap.

The other eight teams on the 2009 grid, including Renault at Enstone and Brawn at Brackley, have joined FOTA (Formula One Teams Association), whose members have refused to sign FIA contracts stating that no more than £40m should be spent on car development in 2010.