USF1 & Stefan GP what happened?

Bram Hengeveld

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What happened to these teams? A few years ago they were hyping things up to enter the F1 and after Lotus, Virgin and HRT were announced as the new teams in F1 it all of a sudden became silent. Are these two teams still around and preparing an attempt to enter F1?
 
What happened to these teams? A few years ago they were hyping things up to enter the F1 and after Lotus, Virgin and HRT were announced as the new teams in F1 it all of a sudden became silent. Are these two teams still around and preparing an attempt to enter F1?
Wasn't USGP banned from F1 by FIA after failing to enter the grid in 2010?
 
For USF1 nothing really happened. That was the main problem. They never made anything else than a nosecone. And if that was an actual nosecone, or just a mock-up, I have no idea. I do however believe that they would've made the grid in 2011 if FIA had allowed them to wait a year.

Stefan is a more gray area. First it was rumoured that Chad Hurley (Co-Founder of Youtube) had tried to merge Stefan GP and USF1, which Windsor&Anderson didn't want. Then he suddently had aquired the Toyotas that in the end ended up with Pirelli. They did have Mike Coughlan with them. A 2010 Toyota did get painted in "Stefan Red". And the plans to run Nakajima, Villeneuve and Maldonado as a third driver looked good enough. However. The firm that Zoran Stefanovic said was going to help out with in-house building, AMCO wasn't really a big company, it had one employee, and a net result of 43 EUR in 2009. It was founded in 08, with a capital at 500 EUR.
So it looks like Zoran Stefanovic is very good with his mouth, but not delivering what he says. They did apply for a 2011 spot, but as we know, no-one got that spot. They did also plan to give the car out to young drivers, or reserve drivers, to get around the testing ban. As Stefan didn't have a spot.
This was not the first time he tried this. He tried to enter in 1996, but I cannot find any information about that. However, someone might remember the slow Lolas from 1997, that was well over 10 sec behind Villeneuve in Melbourne 1997. Stefanovic tried to get an entry in to the 98-championship with the 97-Lolas... Well, needless to say, it didn't happen.

So, the teams are not around. But I'm pretty sure that Stefanovic will show up again one time, when he have the possibility to buy some old chassis.

@Georgios: Yup.
 
Uhm, yes. How Stefanovic actually managed to get the Toyota chassis, engine and lots of employees is something I've never worked out.
The USF1 team had enough money, but Windsor&Anderson just worked way to slow, and when i became clear that they were never going to race in 2010, almost every sponsor pulled out of it. I also belive that Stefanovic would've been able to run the team, though it would be like the early 90's, with some shady team owners, and not completely legal money I guess.
 

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