Jose Maria Lopez, the star of Argentine racing at the moment, has signed a contract with the USF1. This is dependent on him bringing $11m to the team and, presumably, being able to get an F1 Superlicence from the team. Lopez raced in GP2 in 2005 and 2006 and even managed to win a race and was a Renault test driver in the same period. There is the added question of his management as in 2002 Lopez signed a 10-year management deal with Flavio Briatore’s company in order to become one of the Renault young drivers, and it should be noted that the FIA has ruled that no Briatore-managed driver will be granted an F1 superlicence. However, as Lopez was dropped by Renault it is unclear whether Briatore is still involved in his career and the dealings with USF1, which seemed to have involved wheeler-dealer Felipe McGough, suggest that the Briatore deal is ancient history.
USF1 is keen on Lopez for three reasons: Firstly, as there are no American drivers with suitable qualifications at the moment, a South American is the best option; secondly, Lopez has access to considerable funding; and thirdly, USF1 partner Peter Windsor is a close friend of former Argentine F1 driver-turned-politician Carlos Reutemann, who has been pushing Lopez’s career since first seeing him in karting back in 1999.
According to the locals, Lopez has already raised $8.8m and needs $2.2m more to get the drive. The money comes from various sources, including the Ministry of Tourism, racing businessman Alejando Urtubey, who is the brother of one of the country’s rising political stars Juan Manuel Urtubey, governor of the Salta province. There is also talk of money coming from YPF, which was the state-owned oil company of Argentina until 1991 when it was privatised. It has been part of the Spanish giant Repsol since 1999. Reutemann was backed by YPF in his early career.
Windsor says that there is no deadline and that he does not think there are any superlicence problems for Lopez because of the mileage he did in F1 with Renault in tests. When asked about the team picking a pay-driver, Windsor asked one Argentine magazine whether it was very different from Ferrari signing a big deal with a Spanish sponsor and hiring Fernando Alonso, despite the fact that it had a contract with Kimi Raikkonen.
Re: American drivers
Although not suggesting that Danica Patrick is coming to F1 (ever), but I was under the impression the top 6 drivers in the IRL (based on the series’ final standings; Patrick finished 5th) qualified for a provisional Superlicence, pending a test session – is this incorrect?
Hi Joe, Thanks for continuing to write thoughtful and balanced posts as you do.
FYI, I provided a link to JML info. here three days ago…
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/usf1-drivers/#comment-6839
You may well have seen it but in case not.
Cheers,
Kevin
Charlotte, NC USA
I had such high hopes for this team when Windsor said they weren’t going to take on pay drivers. I thought that meant they’d have the best drivers of the new teams.
I was hoping for a Pedro/Seabass pairing, but I guess this shoots that all to hell. I suppose like everythig else in America, anything is for sale if the price is right.
I wonder if they’ll make the Americans find sponsors in order to drive next year, or if they just plan on making the foreigners pay so the Americans can play.
That’s the American way!
This was simply a pragmatic money move — his stats don’t look all that great but he did win one race in GP2 — he’s 26 and it’s probably now or never for him — The only hope for those of us who want to see an American in F1 is Alex Rossi.
I have a question about YPF: wasn’t it sold by Repsol a few years ago?
The return of pay drivers.
( What a shame.
It seems incredibly sad that there are not enough good F1 drivers to go around. Grosjean and Alguersuari got seats way too early, even Ferrari felt Badoer was the best man available.
Seems there’s not enough room at the top (hence goodbye Kimi) but the bottom always has vacancies.
I see this as being caused by the bottleneck at the top of F1 – there’s simply too many drivers going for not enough teams capable of providing a race-winning car. Good drivers who can’t get a seat at one of the big three or four would rather race elsewhere than stick around in F1 (whereas thirty years ago there would have been more teams than that who might give the chance of a race win), leaving the bottom end of the grid to be filled out with also-rans.
[...] Lopez’s deal with USF1 – Joe Saward's Grand Prix Blog "Jose Maria Lopez, the star of Argentine racing at the moment, has signed a contract with the USF1. This is dependent on him bringing $11m to the team and, presumably, being able to get an F1 Superlicence from the team…" [...]
Lopez is a hell of a driver, he is racing in three different categories this year in Argentina and is about to be champion in all of them.
We hope he can follow the steps of other argentinians in F1 like Fangio, Forilan Gonzalez and Reutemann.
Let’s not start with the coffin nail forging just yet. This is a new venture and start up. Yes it requires huge sums of money, but let it get off the ground first. Mr. Lopez will not be a headliner for long if he doesn’t represent the team well during the early part of the innaugural year. Other drivers will be paid to test to see what the car is capable of. Mr. Lopez is providing aviation fuel to get this fighter plane off the ground.
The team will be scrutinized no matter who or what they put in the car during the first year. Let it develop. Manage the press and make sure that you become best friends with the televisers. It’s a Cinderella story from the get go. The glass is more than half full here. Let’s show the cranky, crabby world of F1 that we can bring an attitude of CAN do. THAT my friends is THE AMERICAN WAY.
Mark, Huntersville, NC