There are increasing signs that the USF1 is not going to make it to the grid this year. According to newspaper reports in Argentina, the team’s Peter Windsor has informed Jose Maria Lopez’s manager Felipe McGough and Lopez’s father that the team will not be able to meet the deadlines that exist and will miss at least the first three races, and probably the entire championship. Lopez and his supporters are now hoping that he can become a member of one of the other teams, which means either Campos or Stefan GP. The latter does not have an entry unless USF1 collapses.
However the rumours swirling around the team seem to be getting worse and worse, with the suggestion that Youtube boss Chad Hurley has decided to stop his involvemeet because if the team’s failure to produce any cars. The team is believed to have lost a major sponsorship deal as well and we have had solid reports that it is having trouble making its pay-roll payments and meeting its engine bills.
If the team is forced to give up the dream, it will be yet another blow to Formula 1’s hopes of making an impression in America.
joeblogsf1 
Question then is: what about all the checks, audits, assurances etc the FIA made when selecting these new teams? Werent they done to only select teams with enough resources and set in stone commitment?
Ultimately the FIA left teams with established structures like Lola and Prodrive out to then select the USF1 on-paper promise – even though back in Singapore 09 Bernie was already pretty sure USF1 wouldnt make the first race… go figure…
While this Stefan GP seems to be a doing things in a strange way, the fact that they are reported (here and in Autosport) to be shipping their stuff overseas already suggests they are confident, rich and single minded to get things done.
No reports like that from Campos or USF1.. so I would not be surprised to see Stefan GP start the first the GP.
Possibly with Villeneuve… now that would be strange but he seems as desperate as Stefan GP’s bosses so a perfect match in some ways?
Just got a tweet from USF1:
The US F1 Team web server is down and is being repaired as this is written. We are not gone, as many have reported. More news soon.
I heard on the Internet yesterday that they have paid the employees up to date, but I have not heard anything else. Someone who knows more than me and who shows a connection to the team on his facebook page said that Chad Hurley is “commited and all in”. I am not sure what that means. We shall see.
On their Twitter account, USF1 just reported a few minutes ago: “The US F1 Team web server is down and is being repaired as this is written. We are not gone, as many have reported. More news soon. “
The game at this point is “Follow The Chassis”. Whether or not there is funding or drivers or whatever is immaterial if there is no car to go racing in. So:
USF1, to the extent they still exist, seem to have nothing approximating a working chassis, no crash tests undergone and no hope of producing one in the next two months. Even if against all odds they have managed to cobble together a chassis, it will still need to be crash-tested, and the shambolic nature of its construction will likely mean that it is a last choice if there is any other chassis available.
Stefan say they have a car that is ready to test at Portimao next week.
Campos/Dallara have passed all their crash tests, I believe, but fabrication has slowed down because they weren’t being paid. They can presumably ramp up again and produce two chassis by Bahrain if they start up in the next few days.
So it seems logical to me that if there are going to be two more teams on the grid in Bahrain, they will have to be using either the Stefan chassis or the Dallara chassis. I don’t think there’s anything else out there — the only thing that comes close would be the Lola design that made it to the wind-tunnel but no further, as I recall.
Given that, as Joe has repeatedly written, the only way to get an entry at this stage is to buy an existing one, it would appear that for Stefan to appear, it will need to purchase the USF1 entry. The idea that has been floated of Campos and USF1 merging and then Stefan receiving the last grid slot would require quite a bit of FIA action and would seem to be unworkable.
So as I understand it (to sum up this ramble) the only way forward for USF1 is to buy a chassis, and the only way in for Stefan is to buy an entry. The Dallara chassis is still committed to Campos and therefore probably not available for purchase by USF1. The Campos entry comes with a viable chassis and therefore doesn’t make sense for Stefan, who have a chassis of their own.
Giving it a little of Occam’s Razor, or the Sherlockian principle, or possibly both, the only possibility that remains and makes sense is a union in some fashion of USF1’s entry and Stefan’s chassis and infrastructure, and probably their drivers too.
So let’s hear it for Villeneuve/Nakajima in the U-Stefan-F1 for 2010!
A real shame. I think they rushed into it simply to get a slot. I reckon if they’d taken their time and come up with the 3-5 year plan they would have been stronger.
Now no one is going to take them seriously (if they even were to begin with) which is a blow to anyone in America thinking about F1 and therefore F1 itself.
Joe:
Was this always a half-baked scheme on Windsor’s and the other partner’s part? Why would they enter this if they had a precarious chance of success? How much did the economic meltdown have to play in the collapse?
Especially with Windsor’s close involvement in the sport for years I would think he would find it hard walking around the paddock with this non-effort.
All the best
Michael
And just to make things worse, the USF1 website server fell over this morning (according to the team). I doubt that helped the rumours fade at all…
Ask Cosworth. Have they supplied any engines? Have they been paid for?
I think this says a lot about the FIA’s selection process and politics surrounding it. I may be wrong but I thought the purpose of the selection process was to pick the teams that looked most likely to have the finance and setup to actually make the F1 grid and therefore be the best option for a grid slot. It seems that applications from Lola and prodrive were pasted by for USF1 and Campos Meta when they would have been better options and would have probably made the grid. I hate sound negative but I feel that the forced cosworth engine supply (and possibly to help add weight to counter the breakaway series threat) was the real reason for the selection of these two teams and not prodive/Lola and that it has come back to haunt the FIA as many knew it would.
If the USF! project fails, I fully expect a current F1 team will take over the facilities in Charlotte, N.C. Peter Windsor has told us repeatedly about how much F1 technology comes from NASCAR country and how cheap the skilled labour is in the area; why wouldn’t an F1 team (or several teams) relocate to Charlotte.
Anyway, the cynic in me (and likely also in you too, Joe) was quite suspicious about USF1 from the beginning. The press conference to announce the team lacked a lot of detail about structure, financing and the backers behind the prospective team and seemed to concentrate on possible American drivers, a bit like putting the engine before the chassis (the cart before the horse).
Just my two cents worth.
Interesting report on Lopez’s own website, dated 17th Feb:
Taking into account the numerous information about Jose Maria´s participation in Formula 1 2010 championship, we would like to inform that yesterday, Jose Maria Lopez Sr, toghether with Felipe McGough and Victor Rosso, visited USF1 headquarters in Charlotte, US, to be in contact with the Team´s Directors.
In such meeting, several subjects were covered, in order to have a deep knowledge of the situation of the new team, which is under the responsibility of Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson.
Last night, after the meeting, with a clear understanding of the team´s current situation, the group flew to London, England.
Once in London, arrangements were made to have different meetings; one of them with the managers of the FOM (Formula One Management) whose president is Bernie Ecclestone. The result of the meeting has been positive. They expect to have a similar schedule as today for tomorrow (Thursday).
López Sr., Mc Gough y Rosso are planning to return to our country next weekend.
That sounds to me like – ‘oh crap – the team’s going down – any chance of a ride with Stefan GP’
And why are we surprised? Look, this team was always just the fantasy of a reasonably wealth “techy” that had no idea what he was being lead into.
If America can win the Americas Cup yacht race and it hardly makes a ripple in the news media in the US, and the owner is a super rich “techy” that has been spending nearly $200 million a year to compete to win, then there never was a chance for a start-up F1 team in the USA finding any sponsorship to just take part!.
The main Oracle sponsor was BMW, ring any bells? European company that knows how to market to people that buy yachts! Cant really see Ford or GM thinking they can sell their tanks to the yacht crowd.
The only hope for a US F1 team is that six or ten guys of the wealth level of Chad Hurley got together and chipped in $20 million each over a three year period, they might just make it, if they employ some people that know what they are doing, and that is not sitting in Starbucks in North Carolina dreaming of what they will do when the money arrives.
Bernie is right not to mess with North America, it has too many cheaper options and he will only bring a race here when he can find a guy like Tony George (who?) that could never make it work. He cant make a deal even in Las Vegas any more, they are way to smart to fall for his line of “patter”these days.
RIP USF1.
Spot on Joe, it’s not just bad news for the US, but F1 as a whole as the sport could benefit greatley from a US prescence in the Sport. Not just because of a team, but in terms of the market and new sponsors and companies looking to get invovled. Just feel sorry for the workers who will be unemployed out of this as the project was announced in Feb 2009, sometime before the FIA annoucned who the ‘new teams’ would be. Wrote about it on http://tinyurl.com/ya5yd8v, quite sad about the whole thing really.
Ive read that USF1 and Campos will merge with Hurley getting involved.
There are interesting photos on their official facebook page of Lopez & co visiting the factory and inspecting a tub…
The odds of seeing Stefan GP on the grid in Bahrain seem to have improved rather dramatically. I’d now put their chances at 3 in 4.
My only remaining wonder is how the powers that be will manage to strip USF1 of their competition license prior to the first grand prix. Despite some refutations, there still seems to be serious suggestions that teams can in fact miss the first 3 grands prix. Jean Todt was quoted as recently as last week that teams could in fact miss 3 races.
I suppose USF1 will try to recoup some of their losses by selling up to Stefan. One wonders if the USF1 license is even saleable. There’s only a single potential buyer, and if Bernie and Todt want Stefan on the grid, they can almost certainly find some justification to simply strip USF1 of their license. In this case, some quite valid justifications.
The team’s complete failure to test could certainly be reason enough. There are conflicting reports as to whether USF1 has even passed crash testing. Not having any signed drivers, it goes on and on. The only big stumbling block in pulling their license would appear to be the 3 race provision.
USF1 was hardly the best method to expand F1 interest in the US. If you want to expand F1 interest you:
1. Acquire a long term contract for television coverage (say ESPN2 since networks wouldn’t bite when coverage is already low)
2. Be strategic in keeping it in the news wherever possible (reach out to the US media through junkets)
3. Get as many american drivers as possible in the feeder series so one or two eventually join a solid F1 team.
That’s how you develop interest in the US. It must be a long term strategy by FOM and FOTA. Not through a dreamy F1 team with a silly name.
I think before USF1 returns it’s slot to the FIA they will take a long look at exactly what penalties are involved. It’s been over 3 months since Toyota left and there still has been no public resolution of whether there are fines to be paid. USF1 may hold their slot as long as possible and a form of plea bargaining might go on but ultimately I don’t see the FIA in any hurry to give Stefan the open slot. Why replace a ? with another ?
Stefan is claiming a testing date at Portimao next week (25th thru 28th) while the tracks website claims to be holding a moto trackday session on 3 of those days, (25, 26, 27)
Knowing Peter Winsdor and Chad Hurley, this is a deliberate ploy. Even Bernie is in on the act. Pretend like they haven’t got a chance in hell, then come from no-where.
Branson did exactly the same thing with his team launch. Created doubt first, then came out with a stunning product.
Wow, fantastic. At least they might spare us Americans the shame of making it to the first race and then failing on the track. I’d much rather fail off of it.
F1 making a impression in America?
I thought it was the other way round!
Some years ago with the All American Racer’s idea, we got and swiftly off he went Scott Speed.
Marco Andretti in F1?
A1GP proved to be a test alone.
Danica Patrick in F1?
(Sarah Fischer tested once a McLaren)
Stefan GP is essentialy Toyota F1.: 2010 chasis, 2009 engine…
Shipping containers with load was a mere stunt.
One thing for sure… they are ready and USF1 is not!
In any case.:
http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=358010