I hear from Charlotte that the principal players of the USF1 operation met on Friday for a strategy meeting to discuss what to do about the options available for the future. The car is not finished. There is not enough time nor money to get it done and Chad Hurley, of Youtube fame, has apparently decided not to put any more money into the operation. There is no additional money coming from any other sources at the moment and while the principals continue to dream that money will turn up at the last moment and save the day, this is increasingly unlikely as other bids aimed at saving the situation have been deemed unacceptable. I do not know any details about the offers that have been made but apparently they were not good enough.
This does not really change the future. There are still staff members in Charlotte but it seems that they are simply waiting until the end of the month to see if they will be paid. After that it looks like the whole operation is going to break up. The obvious course of action now is for Hurley and the partners to agree to a deal by which the entry is sold to Stefan GP. If Hurley is to get any thing back from his sizeable investment in the team, he will need to ask for equity in Stefan, which is a sensible goal given that Stefan goes nowhere without an entry and there is no reason why the FIA will issue a new entry at this stage of the game. It would create a very bad precedent for the future.
Thus we expect to see any negotiations in the coming days centred on transferring the entry, and perhaps Jose Maria Lopez’s contract (if it is deemed to still be valid) to Stefan GP. The Serbian team would enter the sport with the USF1 name, but this could be changed by a meeting for the Formula 1 Commission after a few weeks. That all depends on whether a deal is possible. If it is not then both teams will flop. Such a thing would be illogical, but if there is pride involved anything can happen.
American pride at that…
God, it’s like the convoluted plot of a Victorian novel!
F1. Truth surely is stranger than fiction.
Hurley seeking an equity position in Stefan GP as a means of getting a return on his investment? If he learned anything from his initial dip into the piranha club, it is that there is no easy money to be made in F1.
If anything I think will sell the name and entry outright to recover as much of his initial investment as he can. With a nominal face saving position within the team. Lopez and his sponsorship would also be a key component of that deal.
I also suspect the FIA may drag out the process of their involvement with any USF1 “rescue” effort merely to short circuit Stefan’s entry possibility this year. Which is why Anderson may have been so optimistic and hopeful in his observation that the FIA wanted to help them.
Bad business all around, the sooner they end it the better for all concerned.
[...] Joe Saward has commented, most sensible thing would be for the two teams to merge, use the Stefan GP car, [...]
it would be a landmark to see a Serbian operation under the banner of the US…
times are changing
UNPROFOR F1 . . .
Thanks for your coverage Joe. Since the demise of CART, open wheel racing has been pretty much dead here in the States. The US-fan base needed a US team to the stir interest in F1. I had hoped this was finally it, as did many others; it was just not to be. The sleeping giant will remain asleep. European motorsport is still safe from the ugly Americans.
This solution seems so logical, that it’s likely not to come to fruition. :-\
Hi Joe
great insight as always, I believe this has been stefan gp’s long term plan for a while now . He’ll have been watching campos and usf1 very closely. Waiting for his opportunity to buy out an entry. That is why he has gone ahead with putting what looks like a viable srarting structure in place regardless of the lack of an entry. It seems now that the only way for usf1 and it’s partners to claw back any of it’s investment is to sell the entry to the highest bidder asap. And that WILL happen. I just hope that the fia learn something from this debacle altho I think they won’t !
Joe
Do you know who the USF1 grid slot is licenced to ? whether it is Hurley or whether it is Windsor/Anderson
With the fiasco that has been USF1 with Windsor’s false promises and Anderson turning USF1 into another unfinished project and all the incompetent management that has surrounded F1 I and many others would be disgusted at Anderson/Windsor walking away with millions having sold the grid slot and failure being rewarded
CWT 1965
The entry is owned by
Team US, LLC
9900 Twin Lakes Parkway
Charlotte, NC 28269
U.S.A.
This is a company incorporated in Delaware, with the registered number of 4665736.
Kind of ironic that 40 yrs ago America could land a man on the moon and now it can’t, it could build a winning F1 car but now it has to turn to a country it beat up 10 yrs ago for help to get to the grid at all… at this rate of progress we’ll be back to the stoneage soon..
As I recall it was decided that teams could not sell their entries.
Steve M
Teams can sell anything they wish to sell. One cannot restrict that. The entry is in fact the company that owns the entry. So the company has to be sold.
Thanks for keeping everybody up to date Joe. This is a sad but I feel inevitable development.
It also begs the question of how flawed was the FIA selection process? Do you think anybody would be even discussing Stefan, or indeed would they have appeared had Prodrive or Lola been around now? I suspect there would have been four new teams at the current testing sessions.
As an American F1 fan, I gotta say that your scenario works for me.
If Anderson and Windsor couldn’t make a go of building a car in the USA, where talent, resources and the cost of doing business are supposedly so much cheaper than in Europe, then I’d think they’d fail anywhere else they tried to set up shop. While it would be nice if some competent Americans could buy the team and run it from Charlotte, I can’t blame Hurley for wanting to recoup as much of his $$$ as possible. If that means selling to the Serbs for more $$$ than say a Penske is willing to pay and keep the team in the USA, then I say go for it. Hurley doesn’t owe the American F1 fans anything.
Joe,
do you know how far along Anderson and the gang have gotten? Anderson said before that they would have a roller by November/December. Did they even get that far and did they do any testing at Windshear?
Sad to say that apparent dithering by principals of the team seems to have sunk the effort and Stefan seemed to have a bit better logistics.
Joe, your mention of pride begs the question; what are Bernie’s and Todt’s personal involvement or feelings in the previous dealings/rejections of Stefanovic? It sounds like he is a bit of a maverick and as such, has gotten himself into a political closet.
It appears to us in the peanut gallery that Stefan GP, with the cars, staff, experienced drivers and budget (?) should have a shot at looking presentable on the grid. Can the hatchet be buried or is the blood bad enough that personal politics/pride of the main actors is a fatal flaw to this plan?
Ted I
I was talking about pride in Charlotte…
USF1 wants to receive a dispensation to skip the first four races. I think that would set a bad precedent. USF1 should sell their entry to Stefan as soon as possible because the value of the entry is going down every day.
It is such a huge disappointment that USF1 couldn’t get their shit together.
US(erbian)GP?
I think the only future for USF1 is in chapter 7.
The whole deal has been a joke from day one. Anyone that thinks they can run a F1 team from Charlotte and Spain and then can get someone to bankroll it must be real good sales person, or con artist. I think I know which that role they have been playing.
For Chad Hurley, it was a gamble in much the same way as people gamble on the stock market, except there are good advisers for that sort of gambling.
To blame the economy is to be in denial.
I suspect that Peter Windsor suffered from the same dilutions as Craig Pollock, standing at the back of a Williams garage is not how you learn to run a F1 team. I really hope these guys can look themselves in the mirror and think of all the people, employees, driver and suppliers that they have dragged down with this sorry effort.
Did they ever try to find out how many people watch a “Speed” TV showing of an F1 race and think why in a country the size of the USA only 150,000 people watch? That is why you wont get sponsorship for a team in the USA.
This is such utter BS (the news and course of events for USF1, not the story). I just cannot believe there is not a single or group of wealthy individuals with the foresight to invest whatever is needed to keep the team together. The potential for rewards are incredible, much more than a simple return of cash invested. There are just some many applications and networking opportunities that come with F1 involvement…
…I guess they’re all too busy playing rocket scientists and whatnot. I’m afraid I don’t personally have the funds, I’m just a couple million short, otherwise I’d be all over the chance :/ Oh well.
I think the Palo Alto geek messed up a lot. He was onboard as investor and he promised to help w/ contacts, now he’s not happy there’s no car.
Well, you gotta invest Chad! No cash, no car pal.
Seems like the guy wants to do smth cool & challenging, trying all kinds of crazy stuff, like his fashion line(lol)…
This is called the piranha club, dangerous waters surfer dude!
If I was Stefanovic, I would wait for FIA permit until the very last moments and use surfer dude’s entry only as the last resort. This way it would be cheaper… while surfer dude may call fellow SoCal speed junkie Frankie Muniz to get into the US open-wheelers to learn the ropes.
There is a nasty rumour (started by yours truly) making the rounds that the available cheap labour (out of work NASCAR `engineers’ ) in Charlotte, that Peter Windsor pontificated about, spent much of the USF1 budget designing fenders and other sheetmetal bodywork for the car as well as carburetors for the Cosworth engines.
Perhaps Stefan GP could relocate some of the operations to North Carolina; perhaps not.
It’s a shame to see USF1 fail like this. I find it odd that Hurley can’t pull in a sensible budget from his contacts. There has been no sign that he has been able to bring in any money.
Joe, who owns
Team US, LLC
9900 Twin Lakes Parkway
Charlotte,
Windsor and Anderson presumably. But does Hurley own a portion in return for his $$$$$$$$$$ ?
Yes. I believe there are five partners.
Universal Studios F1
Anyone feel like checking the franchise tax records and trying to get a handle on who the members of Team US, LLC are?
Joe Saward wrote: “….and there is no reason why the FIA will issue a new entry at this stage of the game. It would create a very bad precedent for the future.”
Why would it set a dangerous precedent? When a team fails the slot remains unfilled and open.
Graham,
Maybe the next time Pol Pot will turn up with a race team and demand an entry. There has to be come control…
Someone earlier had expressed concern that Windsor/Anderson might reap a windfall if the team is sold to Stefanovic. Hurly may be a novice at investing in motorsports, but he’s no fool. If he ponied up 20 mill, I’m sure his investment is protected by majority “ownership”. Hence his rumored reaching out to potential buyers.
Maybe the news is largely speculation, but it looks as if Campos also has designs on Hurley and Lopez money.
Does Stefan even have what USF1 might ask? Would he want to buy anything of the team anyway?
It’s conceivable that Stefan could also have acquired Campos entry but chose not to. (Campos was reportedly asking 12m for the entry and Senna’s contract.)
Isn’t most of Stefan’s backing coming from Toyota, who are seeking to defray an FIA fine for the no-show?
Meanwhile, both Campos and USF1 face penalties for failure – Campos future is still far from assured.
Even so, at this time, Hurley probably has a better chance of being on the grid with Campos than with Stefan.
There seems little willingness on the part of the FIA to blow out USF1 and throw anything Stefan’s way.
Welcome to the Snakepit Chad! This is the problem with open wheel racing here in America after the battle between CART and Indy Car……..there’s NO support left both fan wise and financially. If he wanted a return on investment he should have thrown his money at NASCAR……Hell, he was already in Charlotte! I’ll still continue to watch the sport because I love it but I won’t ever count on another race here or a team from here. It’s just reality………or is it……….just business? Besides, Belgium is more fun than Indiana!
I think the most important questions in all of this relate to the FIA’s selection processes. Part of that was supposedly to verify the finance the teams had in place. Given the mess we now know USF1 and Campos were in how could they possibly have looked better than Prodrive or Epsilon Euskadi?
Nick Craw visited USF1 in October to carry out an inspection for he FIA to verify that things were on schedule. What did he see that did not set the alarm bells ringing? Most of us realised something was wrong based on the videos the team released so it is inconceivable that someone inspecting the company could not identify the problems that existed.
Either the people the FIA used are incompetent or corrupt or somehow Peter Windsor managed to convince them Charlotte was in Woking and showed them round McLaren.
[...] Joe Saward has commented, most sensible thing would be for the two teams to merge, use the Stefan GP car, [...]