The USF1 Team has (very quietly) launched its website, revealing video footage of the team’s first monocoque being built and noseboxes being prepared for crash-tests. The team has also revealed a list of its partnerships which includes
“manufacturing partners” Crawford Composites and Gunther Steiner’s Fibreworks Composites. For more details click here.
Hey, check this out… USF1 has a website
December 25, 2009 by Joe Saward
28 Responses
And neither the news page or “blog” have an RSS feed. Bad design. (And it’s not a blog without an RSS feed, it’s just a webpage.)
Is is real?
quite impressive……
Nice to see. Not much else to say until we see their car and they name their drivers. Let’s also see whether they show up in Bahrain.
In the long term, if they can make their arrangement work, that could mean a huge change in how newer F1 teams do business.
Ah. You couldn’t stay away, could you. Neither could I. Thanks for your work, and happy remaining holidays.
Not a big surprise, isn’t it? They are doing a bit of what they have announced and let much more out about their development than other teams would. But they are not supposed to be front runners with their first car either. So we may have to wait a bit to see if this kind of openness continues.
That video is kinda cool. It’s more detail of the manufacturing process than I’ve seen from other teams. It brings home to me that it’s really quite a precise sport, something I’d become quite blase´ about. However, Peter Windsor looks like a bit of an extra, fantastic spokesperson but what does he actually do apart from that I wonder?
PS Thanks for a great blog Joe, and thanks Sidepodcast for introducing me to your dry, informative F1 angle.
All very informative, and I’m glad that something seems to be happening. But I’m a little unhappy that they seem to be associating themselves with everything that was achieved by all Americans that have gone before. That is not their legacy, they have to earn that.
Interesting that the new boys are coming in with a different approaches, this could be the revolution that we are looking for?
Just a quick point:
Many people, including BE, have had a go at USf1 for their apparent lack of progress over the last few months. Further to that point, BE has recently alluded to the fact that USf1 may not actually make the starting grid in Australia.
Surely there are huge benefits for Formula 1 as a brand even if USf1 pulls the plug in the coming months. Windsor and his team has put a lot of emphasis on engaging an American audience. Continuous youtube installments from the factory, interviews with Windsor et al, and a nationalist chest pumping campaign to garner American sponsorship all add up to free publicity and engagement in the most sort after American market.
Surely it is time to let the team continue it’s efforts with the knowledge that even if they do fail to make the grid, they have already helped Formula 1 as a brand make vital inroads into a once burnt and uninterested market
Very interesting video – nice to finally see a website
They look like they’ve got good backing.
With Schumi coming back, and Jenson and Lewis in the same team , and Kobayashi getting a drive, there should be some good racing with the new teams in 2010.
I can’t wait !
If they went through the trouble of getting on-boad shots of the Semi delivering the CNC machines, then I’d tend to think they have shot film of everything. Should be plenty more coming from their website/youtube account.
I guess it’s better to see something rather than nothing. But to think that this is the website of an F1 team leaves me wondering even more. I’ve seen better looking Formula Ford Team sites. Perhaps it may have been wiser to properly launch a proper looking site to begin with, rather than cause concern with such a lo-tech, poorly developed site. Not quite the image for a team to project, especially one looking for money (if they haven’t already found it) from some rather professional deep pockets – to whom image may be part of the reason for their entering F1 with USF1 in the first place. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d be embarrassed.
That site is crap. And these guys have Chad Hurley on board – the founder of Youtube and this is all they can come up with? And they want to be taken seriously?
Didn’t Windsor say they were going to revolutionise the way fans interact with F1. Interactivity, live cameras watching production and development, etc etc?
My 19month old son could write more copy than that and design a better website.
They’re a long way from achieving anything right now. No wonder it was a “quiet” release of the site. I would be embarrassed with that effort.
(But I wish the team well – I really do. I just think it could have been done better)
Don, it is possible to have a blog without an RSS feed (the term simply refers to a site built using journalling software), but it does show a distinct lack of awareness of what a blog should possess to not include any feed at all. Though I should probably admit to not being perfect in this area because my old blog’s RSS feed was flaky at best and the new one’s feed is difficult to find.
Peter, I think Peter is reprising at least part of the role he had at Williams in the 1980s (basically, helping to organise stuff behind the scenes) as well as putting his journalism experience to good use by making lots of noise about USF1.
Joe thanks for taking a break to put this in the blog, BTW, loved the last Aside. As for USF1 their website, and news releases, Just look at how many official news releases they had from July then going silent in October for nearly 2 months. They leaked rumors regarding who they’d like to have drive for them that seemed to be utter pipe dreams. So far they (along w/ Campos) need to announce some strategic partner/sponsors soon to in essence put up or shut up. Only Honda/Brawn can get away without significant sponsors on a car.
In regard to Ryan’s comments
“Surely there are huge benefits for Formula 1 as a brand even if USf1 pulls the plug in the coming months. Windsor and his team has put a lot of emphasis on engaging an American audience. Continuous youtube installments from the factory, interviews with Windsor et al, and a nationalist chest pumping campaign to garner American sponsorship all add up to free publicity and engagement in the most sort after American market.
Surely it is time to let the team continue it’s efforts with the knowledge that even if they do fail to make the grid, they have already helped Formula 1 as a brand make vital inroads into a once burnt and uninterested market”
I think some of the dithering and if the team is unsuccessful will be a bigger blow to average American interest in F1 than the 2005 USGP. As for American Sponsorship in F1 over the past few years are Marlboro, Mobil, FedEx HP, Intel, Dell, ATT just to name a few and ones that are household names and Fortune 500 companies. But even when there was Honda, Toyota, BMW and Daimler-Chrysler existed, all with significant American presence and manufacturing in the US, there didn’t seem to be much promotion by them of the USGP, granted I only went to the last race, but had been in Indiana from 2006-2007, and it didn’t seem that there was any effort to connect with the greater public/average race fan. I’ve almost seen more marketing effort associated with the MotoGP races.
Sorry the post was long, I hope for an interesting season, hope that Campos and USF1 make it, include Mr. Sauber’s team in that mix. Let’s find out who’s driving where and see what happens.
Interesting video……You bet ! As a cutting tool engineer, I can see that USGP sure is lacking in the knowledge and application of cutting tools.
Man, what an awful web site, and, as others have commented earlier, no RSS feed on the blog. The whole layout of that website is so unprofessional. Took me ages to find the video as well.
I’m certain that Ron Dennis would be horrified to see the casual way that operators are dressed.
USGP doesn’t present a proper corporate image to me in that video , espcially, if you were sponsor hunting.
Joe,
After quite a number of years, I have now changed my home page from http://www.grandprix.com to http://www.joesaward.wordpress.com
Best wishes for 2010.
Why no Cosworth in the Partners list ? – just a brief mention in August news clip !
[...] Hey, check this out… USF1 has a website The USF1 Team has (very quietly) launched its website, revealing video footage of the team’s first monocoque [...] [...]
Have to agree that the site doesn’t look altogether convincing, shall we say. Lots of “partners”, consisting of suppliers down to and including the boy who makes the tea, but no actual “sponsors”… No driver announcements, and the only driver linked to the team is the one with the bag of gold, but without the superlicence… A website that looks like it came to visit from 1998…
Surely if Peter Windsor was looking for some concrete evidence of actual process, he could come up with something better than the fact that the renovations to their building were completed in three weeks! and then using that as proof of the fact that Charlotte is a motorsports hub (which everyone knows anyway).
Is it possible that this could be a baroque exercise in the generation of tax losses, or something? Or a ploy by NASCAR to turn a new generation of American fans off F1? There has to be a rational explanation for all this somewhere… But then again there was no rational explanation for Andrea Moda or LIFE Racing either.
Peter G — could you elaborate? What are they doing or not doing?
If you watch the video, do so with the audio off. The sound track is awful. Its an uninspiring rock track.
I’m sure it would have been a more interesting video if we’d had the actual sound on the original footage.
For a website launch its about as impressive as Brawn’s website last year, except these guys have the backing of some people that understand the web.
I expected the website to live up to the hype. It failed miserably.
Another car designed only in CFD, am I missing something?
All of the current teams use at least one windtunnel, I wonder if next season USF1 and Wirth/Virgin F1 wil find out why.
Peter G,
Funny you mention that. Over xmas my brother-in-law and I were talking, he’s an engineering technician for a major car parts company and he said first, that the machines used are some of the worst you can get (his opinion I guess) and he said it was very basic stuff. We also commented on the casual attire. He isn’t too knowledgeable about carbon fiber construction so he didn’t have much to say of that. Just generally he felt that the lines and processes he designs and the parts he makes for regular cars seem to be better done than those shown here. the eg of the parts on the table, didn’t get careful scrutiny but it did initially look to him mock ups. So maybe its just working models and not final pieces with full heat treatments etc.
I am excited to see them work it out. I really want them to get top 10 results at some points this year… but they need to sign some drivers for that!
To Ash and Mad -Elf.
My comments in the tooling was that it was very basic. Either TG or ER collet chucks, and to be holding a solid carbide drill in something like that is crazy, as these particular tools run-out ( guaranteed..no charge ). My preference is for hydraulic chucks to hold solid carbide drills.
I did not like the wood pecking program for the drill, and it appear that they were running flood coolant outside the drill, rather than through the tool to flush out the swarf.
The face mill appeared to be too small for the workpiece, and larger cutter should have been used, or, alternately, done the machining in two passes.
As Mad -Elf commented, those machines are not considered highly in the pecking order in CNC machines. McLaren has an agreement with YAMAZAKI ( MAZAK ) , and I have noticed that other F1 firms seem to have tie ups with machine tool builders. Probably as a contra deal, but, HxxS arent that great ( my opinion).
They were also doing some milling work with, what appeared to be a long series end mill, also held in a collet, chuck, whereas, a ” Shrink System” would be more accurate and rigid.
I worked as a cutting tool engineer for a major USA firm until the GFC.
Have lived in Japan for 5 years, visited machine tool factories in Japan and Korea, and spent the past 8 years working thoughout Asia in application work. ( Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, New Zealand etc). I have been in factories in China, that are so spotless, you would eat your lunch off the floor. ( Ron D. would be proud )
I don’t claim to know everything ( no one does), but, I would have expected more from USGP, and , to show that video on the web, is to me ,a lack of professionalism.
You would never see anything like that from McLaren or Ferrari.
But I guess they really just wanted to show that they are sticking to their philosophy of wanting to do things differently than the other teams. That it would never be seen at McLaren or Ferrari would probably be received as a compliment by the Bayou boys working in the Charlotte motorsport industry.
Peter G–
This is absolutely fascinating. So from your perspective as a CNC engineer, is there any justification from a technical point of view for what’s on the video? I mean, could it be that they’re doing the best they can with limited resources and utility-grade machinery? Or is it the case that no-one who knew what they were doing would set up or use the machinery that way, no matter how limited the budget?
What I’m driving at is this: could it be that what’s in the video is a Potemkin cutting shop — thrown together to look good on video, by someone who is not a cutting engineer and doesn’t really know how to use the equipment?
Ash,
I think they are probably doing the best they can , and maybe with limited resources . Probably had the tooling thrown in. I realize that USF1 aren’t into high volume production , but, I saw something once on the net about TOYOTA F1 in Germany, and they had some good high tech machinery there, and noticed they did have much higher quality tooling.
Many years ago, I was a involved with some sponsorship for HOLDEN RACE TEAM ( HRT) in Australia ( that where I live BTW), and they went from a basic CNC lathe and CNC machining center ( simaiar style , but, not the same make as USF1) to MAZAK machines with Multi Tasking capabilities. HRT produced some interesting stuff.
The video images shown may be amazing to the general public, but, to the trained eye, they aren’t professiona. .
Here is a link on the McLaren web site http://www.mclaren.com/theteam/mazak.php
I have been to MAZAK factories in Japan when I lived there, and they have huge facilities there, and always producing innovative machines.
I have no affiliation with them, BTW.