American team planning F1 entry

W

Wido Rossen

  • Wido Rossen

An American group is looking at putting together a team to enter Formula One in 2010, sources have confirmed to autosport.com.

The team, which is set to be called USF1, will be fronted by American design engineer Ken Anderson and former Williams team manager Peter Windsor.

Although there has been no official announcement about the plans yet, nor an official entry lodged, sources suggest that their bid has been approved by rival Formula One bosses and that they are currently attempting to raise sponsorship funding for the project in America.

An official USF1 website has already been produced. Investigations by autosport.com have revealed that the website is owned by Anderson, although at this stage it only has a logo.

Anderson was technical director of Ligier in 1988 and also worked for the Onyx F1 team before moving back to America. He was technical director of both Chip Ganassi Racing and AJ Foyt Racing before designing the G-Force IRL car in 1996 - which went on to win the 1997 Indy 500 with Arie Luyendyk - and the next generation chassis in 2000. Anderson then became technical director of NASCAR team Haas CNC Racing in 2003.

He is also the part owner of the Wind Shear Inc. full scale, 180mph rolling road wind tunnel in North Carolina which has been used by F1 and NASCAR teams.

Sources indicate that USF1 plan to construct their own chassis at their North Carolina base, with the ban on in-season testing making it more feasible for an F1 team to be based outside of Europe for all but the stretch of European races between May and September.

The Formula One Teams' Association's (FOTA) recent confirmation that each manufacturer is willing to supply customer engines for 5 million Euros per season and gearboxes for 1.5 million Euros now make is more feasible than it has been for years for an independent team to enter F1 in 2010.
 
The current climate points to a new age of customer teams, in such an environemnt the thing that reallymatters is what you buy and who you put in it. Until we know that its impossible to predict
 
  • Wido Rossen

The USF1 team launch

Update on the USA F1 team posting.


Peter Windsor says that the new USF1 team will be launched on Speed TV on February 24. The new team hopes that the announcement of the project will result in more backing arriving.

Windsor started his F1 career as a journalist but became Williams F1's sponsorship manager in 1985. In 1988 he left the team and tried to buy Brabham but the deal ended up in a legal wrangle, although Windsor ended up being awarded $2m in damages. In 1990 he became head of Ferrari's Guildford Technical Office but a year later went back to Williams as team manager. In 1993 Windsor went to America hoping to set up an Indycar team but when that did not happen he established a new F1 team with Japan's Tetsu Ikuzawa and Enrique Scalabroni. This opened a drawing office in Basildon, Essex, but never found the money to build the cars. Windsor then returned to the F1 media and has been working for Speed TV for several years.
 
  • Wido Rossen

Danica Patrick rumored to be a candidate for the team


Yep , here`the story.

The man in charge of the technical part of the USF1 project says the team would be interested in testing IndyCar racer Danica Patrick.

"She's great. She gets a lot of press," USF1 technical director Ken Anderson told The Associated Press.

"(Indianapolis Motor Speedway president) Tony George would probably be pretty mad with me if I took her out of the IRL but we'll see.

"I don't know if it's something she wants to do. We'd certainly love to test her and go from there," Anderson added.

The USF1 team have already set a February 24 date to announce their plans to enter Formula One, as details continue to appear about the project.

According to The Associated Press report, the team will have a working budget of $64 million and a staff of at least 100, with the aim of putting two American drivers on the grid.

Patrick is one of the most popular names in IndyCar, where she has won one race to date.

Anderson said the team, to be based in South Carolina, are also looking at having a second headquarters in Spain, sharing the factory with the Epsilon Euskadi squad, based in Gipuzkoa.

"We're talking to (former F1 engineer) Sergio Rinland about basing it at Epsilon," said Anderson. "It (Gipuzkoa) is a beautiful city, it's certainly on top of our list. Spain makes a lot of sense with all the winter testing."

Andersson also admitted it made sense to enter Formula One now.

"It's the biggest sport in the world and the biggest TV show in the world," he said. "NASCAR has just become a national sport, never mind an international sport."



And........she good looking to :highfive:
 
  • David Benson

Yeah, I think Patrick would be about the worst choice they could make. Although she is a sponsor magnet. So maybe make her a test driver or something. I am stoked that they are giving this a go. But I am curious about their original statement of having the car 100% made in America. Seems there are some things that just don't make sense to get here.
 
Testing... testing...

"would be interested in testing" is as vague as a statement gets. They'd obviously be interested in testing a lot of drivers. This is probably mostly to stir up hype.

If I were them, I'd probably avoid flashy names like Patrick (she'd be hyped to the orbit, and in case she's unsuccessful, the letdown could result in a lot of bad press), and go with Scott Speed who's had F1 some experience as the #1 driver. I have no idea who would be #2.
 
The youngest of the Andretti's maybe? Marco Andretti, or is he still to young for that move?
 
They say end of 2009 for the car. At the very least they will test Patrick, look at what interest has been generated already just by the rumor.

Also there are no gender split in F1 or any motorsport, its one of the few sports in the world where Men and Women are treated 100% equal by the rules.
 

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