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US F1 Team

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United States US F1-Cosworth
Full nameUS F1 Team
BaseCharlotte, North Carolina, United States
Alcañiz, Aragon, Spain
Team principal(s)Ken Anderson
Peter Windsor
Formula One World Championship career
First entry2010 Bahrain Grand Prix
"US F1" redirects here. For the human gene, see USF1.

US F1 Team is a Formula One team which has been granted entry to Formula One in the 2010 season.[1] The team is fronted by former Haas CNC Racing technical director Ken Anderson and journalist (and former Williams and Ferrari manager) Peter Windsor.[2]

US F1 is the only F1 team based outside of Europe, with their factory located in Charlotte, North Carolina. This is part of Anderson and Windsor's plan to promote American drivers and technology, as did their initial aim to run two American drivers in the 2010 season.[3]

Origins

On February 24, 2009, Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson appeared on the American cable television network SpeedTV to announce their intent to file an entry of a new Formula 1 team named US F1 for the 2010 Formula One World Championship.[4]

On 12 June 2009, Team US F1 was granted entry. Due to the political controversy between the FIA and FOTA during the summer of 2009, US F1 was unable to sign the Concorde Agreement until July 29, 2009.[5] This caused some delays in the planned schedule for production with certain budget caps and technical regulations still under debate at that time that were dropped in the final agreement.

Team US F1 set up shop in Charlotte, North Carolina, in a building that at one time housed NASCAR Joe Gibbs/Toyota Racing operations. The team has a secondary base at Motorland Aragón in Spain[6] to allow simplicity of operations during the European portion of the calendar without transport of materials back to North Carolina.

2010 season

On December 22, 2009, Bernie Ecclestone, F1 CEO, among others, expressed doubts about the team making it to the grid for 2010.[7] Windsor has denied these doubts[8] and on the same day finally unveiled a completed team website. Over the Christmas holiday, Windsor's blog proudly stated that the development team had only taken off 2 days "when European-based teams might break for a few weeks" that he would not allow "16 valuable days lost in the too-short life of the F1 European winter" be wasted.[9]

Originally the team planned on running two American drivers.[3] Windsor later retracted that goal, stating that they may employ more experienced, non-American driver in their first season to help speed up future development.[10]The team had denied the possibility of using so-called pay drivers.[11] On November 21, 2009, Argentine driver José María López announced that he has a conditional deal in place with the USF1 team to drive in the 2010 season, provided he secures an eight million-dollar sponsorship package, contradicting the earlier claim.[12] On January 23, 2010 it was reported that Lopez completed a deal with USF1 to drive in the 2010 season,[13] and on January 25, 2010 it was officially announced that he would drive for the team.[14] Windsor confessed that "securing 'Pechito' Lopez for our debut season has been a goal of ours for a long time" at an official release on the team website. The team's chassis, to be known as the Type 1, will utilize the Cosworth CA2010 engine.[1] In September, the first images of the US F1 Type 1 appeared in an interview on SpeedTV's Windtunnel program.[15] A blog entry by senior engineer Scott Bennett revealed that the car will not simply be a design clone of many current cars, but will be very innovative in development. US F1 is the only of the new teams in 2010 to feature their own gearbox, produced by EMCO Gears, Inc.[16]

Windsor's team blog confirmed that one of the team's initial investors are the advertising agency of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, while millionaire Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube, will be the team's primary investor.[17] On December 23, US F1 fulfilled one of their promises in launching their official YouTube channel.[18] The first two-and-a-half minute video shows the team setting up their base of operations and the initial construction of the car's nosecone. In the following days, Windsor made clear that the prior silence surrounding the team had been deliberate, focusing on in-house organizational and other private details rather than public announcements. Speaking in regards to the politics of the sport he commented that "there seemed little or no point in adding to the situation from the perspective of a new team", and compared the team's heads-down time to new home construction, "[where you] don’t invite all your neighbours and family around to see it at least until you’ve got the living room almost done."[19]

As of February 18, US F1 is yet to launch its car or sign a second driver.[20][21][22]


As of February 18th, 2010, www.f1live.com reports that USF1 is near the end, amid rumors of financial distress. They are also reporting their signed driver has began looking elsewhere for a drive in 2010. Also, Windsor has informed him that looking elsewhere would be in his best interest.

References

  1. ^ a b "2010 FIA Formula One World Championship Entry List". FIA. 2009-06-12. Retrieved 2009-06-12.
  2. ^ Tom Jensen (2009-02-24). "USF1 Ready To Roll". SpeedTV.com. Speed. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
  3. ^ a b Damon Lavrinc (2009-02-04). "USF1 Exclusive: The pitch behind the American F1 team". Autoblog. Weblogs, Inc. Network. Retrieved 2009-02-11.
  4. ^ Kallmann, Dave (2009-02-24). "Full speed ahead at USF1". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Journal Communications. Retrieved 2010-01-21.
  5. ^ "US F1 Team Principal Ken Anderson signs Concorde Agreement". usgpe.com. US F1 Team. 2009-07-31. Retrieved 2010-01-21.
  6. ^ "US F1 Team choose Spain as a European base". Formula 1 Administration Ltd. 2009-10-29. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
  7. ^ "Ecclestone has doubts over US F1 and Campos". ESPN F1. ESPN EMEA Ltd. 2009-11-22. Retrieved 2009-11-22.
  8. ^ Elizalde, Pablo (2009-12-22). "Windsor: No doubts on US F1 presence". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 2009-12-23.
  9. ^ "USF1 Unhappy With August Shutdown". speedtv.com. Speed. 2010-01-18. Retrieved 2010-01-23.
  10. ^ Noble, Jonathan (2009-08-10). "Wurz, de la Rosa in frame for US F1 seat". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 2009-08-20.
  11. ^ Ovidiu Panzariu (2009-09-07). "US F1 Turn Down Pay Drivers". Autoevolution. Auto Evolution. Retrieved 2010-01-21.
  12. ^ "Lopez set for USF1 drive". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. 2009-11-21. Retrieved 2009-11-21. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lopez confirmed was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ "López signs as first US F1 driver". gpupdate.net. GPUpdate. 2010-01-26. Retrieved 2010-02-05.
  15. ^ Collins, Sam (2009-09-16). "USF1 2010 car design revealed". Racecar Engineering. IPC Media. Retrieved 2010-01-21.
  16. ^ Collins, Sam (2010-01-19). "Scott Bennett on USF1's progress". Racecar Engineering. IPC Media. Retrieved 2010-01-21.
  17. ^ "YouTube co-founder backs Team US F1". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. 2009-08-19. Retrieved 2009-08-19. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
  18. ^ "USF1Team's Channel". YouTube. Google. 2009-10-08. Retrieved 2010-01-23.
  19. ^ Noble, Jonathan (2009-12-28). "Team US F1 silence was deliberate". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 2009-12-28. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |name= ignored (help)
  20. ^ "Has all-American dream USF1 died a death..?". crash.net. Crash Media Group. 2010-02-18. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
  21. ^ Bernstein, Viv (2010-02-17). "Sponsorship Woes Threaten Future of U.S. Formula 1 Team". The New York Times. The New York Times Company; Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
  22. ^ "End of the line for team USF1". wheels24.co.za. News24. 2010-02-18. Retrieved 2010-02-18.

"USF1 may be nearing the end of the line" http://en.espnf1.com/teamus/motorsport/story/9004.html

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