Jose Maria Lopez has criticised the US F1 team after his dream move into Formula 1 collapsed when the outfit aborted its plans to enter in 2010.
The 26-year-old Argentine was announced as a US F1 driver in January but just one month later he was in talks for the reserve seat at Campos (now HRT) with growing uncertainty over US F1's ability to make the grid.
Lopez's manager, Felipe McGough, hit out at US F1 team boss Ken Anderson in the wake of the team's withdrawal at the beginning of March, and Lopez himself now says he believes he was misled by the team.
"I find it hard to say that we did it wrong," he told a news conference hosted by the Argentine Automobile Club. "I think we put too much trust in what people were telling us.
"As soon as I arrived in Charlotte in February, I realised that everything they were saying was not true. What happened to us was unthinkable: in 60 years of Formula 1 it never happened that a team signed up and didn't make it. They hid things from us."
Lopez is still hopeful of breaking into Formula 1 and is targeting a testing role.
"My idea is to go on, not lay my head down," he said. "Everybody knows what happened. We are going to go on, even though as of today we have no firm project. Of course it's not the same anymore. There have been many falls and I don't know how long I can take it, or my family.
"It [testing] would be the easiest thing because racing in F1 is almost impossible this year. At some point I will be making the decisions."
News from Formula One in the Formation Lap.
Showing posts with label US F1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US F1. Show all posts
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Anderson: Why US F1 isn't on 2010 grid
Anderson: Why US F1 isn't on 2010 grid
Ken Anderson, US F1, 2009Team US F1 boss Ken Anderson has broken his silence about what went wrong at his outfit in its preparations for this year - as he keeps his hopes up that the Charlotte-based operation can try again to get on the grid for 2011.
Just prior to the FIA officially confirming for the first time that US F1 will not be racing this season, Anderson spoke to AUTOSPORT to explain how the team's preparations were rocked by the political battles, and the threat of an F1 breakaway series - which marred the 2009 season.
But he says the final blow to the team came in the middle of January, when a key sponsor failed to fulfil its promises to the team and did not deliver expected funding.
"The way the chips fell in January, that put us behind," said Anderson, who revealed that talks had taken place with Campos, Stefan GP and Toyota in recent weeks to try and help his outfit get on the grid. "[Then] there was really no point in trying to show up any time this year once you have missed the testing, and there is no testing during the year.
"There is no point in trying to miss races and show up, just to show up," he added. "That would just look bad for everybody.
"It has been very difficult for all the new teams to get to the first tests - but once the racing season starts, with no testing, if you have problems it is just very difficult to solve them."
Anderson is still awaiting confirmation from the FIA about whether his team can get another entry for the 2011 championship, with an announcement expected in the next few days about what the application criteria will be.
If US F1 does not get a swift go-ahead for 2011 then Anderson fears its operation may need to be shut down completely. If it does get a green light, then he is bullish about its prospects for next year.
"What we want to do is regroup, finish the car for 2011, be testing late summer/early fall (autumn), and be really ready for next year," he said. "The irony of the situation is - we filed our entry in December of 2008 and we were supposed to know something by March.
"We moved into this building [in Charlotte] in March, ready to go. Then, if you remember last year, that was when all hell broke loose with the FIA, FOTA, cost cap teams versus non cost cap teams and all that.
"Then everybody who wanted to get into F1, all the new teams, [they] tried to get in with the cost cap regulations... and we didn't get approved by the FIA until June 12. Then the Concorde Agreement wasn't signed to absolutely know that we could go forward until July 31. Losing those four months was always going to be difficult to recapture, but we were on schedule right up until mid-January, and that was when some issues arose with sponsors that kind of locked us up."
Anderson said he believed the FIA would not move to deliberately block US F1's plans for 2011 - although he was fearful about what the future would hold if it could not get a guaranteed entry soon.
AUTOSPORT understands that the possibility of granting US F1 an automatic entry for 2011 have already been ruled out by the FIA.
"I think we will get a yes or no from the FIA relatively quickly," he said. "It doesn't do anyone any good to prolong this.
"They have been very understanding and very helpful - and no-one is happy about the situation. I certainly don't get any impression that there is any vindictiveness or they want to shut us down. We have invested a lot of time and money, and built a proper F1 facility here, and have a lot of people carrying on it.
"If they [the FIA] turn us down, then we are done. We can do a really good job for next year. This year was going to be damage limitation anyway. We gave it our best shot, but once you get a little bit behind then there is no catching up.
"They understand, yes. We have offered solutions as to how we can be there for next year.
"A year ago they knew our business plan, and Charlie Whiting was here last week. We did what we said we were going to do. A couple of CFD people were here, parts were made, and companies made parts for us. There is no doubt we can make a car, the doubt is can we make it in the next 30 weeks - or however much time we needed to do it."
Anderson also confirmed that team partners Chad Hurley and Peter Windsor remained on board - despite various speculations in recent week about their future.
"The situation is that nobody has left anybody. Everybody is still on board. We were exploring different options - we weren't calling the press to say, 'Hey, we are going to talk to Campos.' We tried to keep it under wraps a little bit.
"We chat to Chad every day, and he has been great. Chad did everything he said he was going to do. He put the money in. He got us to where we could go racing. He never agreed to sponsor the team - and as you can imagine that is a pretty significant number in itself.
"As of January 15, we were right on course for where we said we were going to be. But then when the stuff did not show up - then the warning bells started sounding. I scrambled to keep it together, but I just couldn't do it quick enough.
"Peter has now gone back to England, but he lives there. He has stayed in a hotel here for the last three months.
"We are well and truly on hold until we hear from the FIA because there really is nothing we can do. There is no point spending a lot of money finishing the car if they say no. If they say yes then we can have everybody back by the end of the week."
Anderson claims that the team already has investors lined up to help fund its plans for 2011 - but this would require it getting an entry.
When asked if Hurley would continue his involvement if the team went forward, Anderson said: "Chad would participate. He would not put all the money in. We have other investors who want to buy into the company, but it is in Chad's interest, if it keeps going, to stay involved. He is in, but he is not going to pay for the whole thing. We do have investors lined up to do that."
Ken Anderson, US F1, 2009Team US F1 boss Ken Anderson has broken his silence about what went wrong at his outfit in its preparations for this year - as he keeps his hopes up that the Charlotte-based operation can try again to get on the grid for 2011.
Just prior to the FIA officially confirming for the first time that US F1 will not be racing this season, Anderson spoke to AUTOSPORT to explain how the team's preparations were rocked by the political battles, and the threat of an F1 breakaway series - which marred the 2009 season.
But he says the final blow to the team came in the middle of January, when a key sponsor failed to fulfil its promises to the team and did not deliver expected funding.
"The way the chips fell in January, that put us behind," said Anderson, who revealed that talks had taken place with Campos, Stefan GP and Toyota in recent weeks to try and help his outfit get on the grid. "[Then] there was really no point in trying to show up any time this year once you have missed the testing, and there is no testing during the year.
"There is no point in trying to miss races and show up, just to show up," he added. "That would just look bad for everybody.
"It has been very difficult for all the new teams to get to the first tests - but once the racing season starts, with no testing, if you have problems it is just very difficult to solve them."
Anderson is still awaiting confirmation from the FIA about whether his team can get another entry for the 2011 championship, with an announcement expected in the next few days about what the application criteria will be.
If US F1 does not get a swift go-ahead for 2011 then Anderson fears its operation may need to be shut down completely. If it does get a green light, then he is bullish about its prospects for next year.
"What we want to do is regroup, finish the car for 2011, be testing late summer/early fall (autumn), and be really ready for next year," he said. "The irony of the situation is - we filed our entry in December of 2008 and we were supposed to know something by March.
"We moved into this building [in Charlotte] in March, ready to go. Then, if you remember last year, that was when all hell broke loose with the FIA, FOTA, cost cap teams versus non cost cap teams and all that.
"Then everybody who wanted to get into F1, all the new teams, [they] tried to get in with the cost cap regulations... and we didn't get approved by the FIA until June 12. Then the Concorde Agreement wasn't signed to absolutely know that we could go forward until July 31. Losing those four months was always going to be difficult to recapture, but we were on schedule right up until mid-January, and that was when some issues arose with sponsors that kind of locked us up."
Anderson said he believed the FIA would not move to deliberately block US F1's plans for 2011 - although he was fearful about what the future would hold if it could not get a guaranteed entry soon.
AUTOSPORT understands that the possibility of granting US F1 an automatic entry for 2011 have already been ruled out by the FIA.
"I think we will get a yes or no from the FIA relatively quickly," he said. "It doesn't do anyone any good to prolong this.
"They have been very understanding and very helpful - and no-one is happy about the situation. I certainly don't get any impression that there is any vindictiveness or they want to shut us down. We have invested a lot of time and money, and built a proper F1 facility here, and have a lot of people carrying on it.
"If they [the FIA] turn us down, then we are done. We can do a really good job for next year. This year was going to be damage limitation anyway. We gave it our best shot, but once you get a little bit behind then there is no catching up.
"They understand, yes. We have offered solutions as to how we can be there for next year.
"A year ago they knew our business plan, and Charlie Whiting was here last week. We did what we said we were going to do. A couple of CFD people were here, parts were made, and companies made parts for us. There is no doubt we can make a car, the doubt is can we make it in the next 30 weeks - or however much time we needed to do it."
Anderson also confirmed that team partners Chad Hurley and Peter Windsor remained on board - despite various speculations in recent week about their future.
"The situation is that nobody has left anybody. Everybody is still on board. We were exploring different options - we weren't calling the press to say, 'Hey, we are going to talk to Campos.' We tried to keep it under wraps a little bit.
"We chat to Chad every day, and he has been great. Chad did everything he said he was going to do. He put the money in. He got us to where we could go racing. He never agreed to sponsor the team - and as you can imagine that is a pretty significant number in itself.
"As of January 15, we were right on course for where we said we were going to be. But then when the stuff did not show up - then the warning bells started sounding. I scrambled to keep it together, but I just couldn't do it quick enough.
"Peter has now gone back to England, but he lives there. He has stayed in a hotel here for the last three months.
"We are well and truly on hold until we hear from the FIA because there really is nothing we can do. There is no point spending a lot of money finishing the car if they say no. If they say yes then we can have everybody back by the end of the week."
Anderson claims that the team already has investors lined up to help fund its plans for 2011 - but this would require it getting an entry.
When asked if Hurley would continue his involvement if the team went forward, Anderson said: "Chad would participate. He would not put all the money in. We have other investors who want to buy into the company, but it is in Chad's interest, if it keeps going, to stay involved. He is in, but he is not going to pay for the whole thing. We do have investors lined up to do that."
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Scott Bennett - January 18, 2010
Scott Bennett is one of US F1 Team's senior designers. A graduate of Automotive Engineering from Loughborough University north of Leicester, Bennett has worked in auto racing notably with Falcon Cars and G Force, as well as the aviation industry. A native of Denver, Colorado, Bennett also designs a line of furniture which can be seen at housefish.com.
Almost nobody knows it, but this team has come an unbelievably long way since it was first announced on Speed TV 11 months ago. I was at that press conference, and I was one of the first three or four people to start working on the design of the car shortly afterwards, all of us crowded with our computers around a wobbly conference table in a dreary, poorly configured former Nascar shop. I wish I had taken pictures.
A strange quirk of my career is that every vehicle I have ever been involved in designing (including a few Indycars, an off-road trophy truck, and a composite aircraft) have all been clean sheet of paper designs. I don't know what it's like to start with something that already exists and try to refine it.
When we started this car, we started with nothing but fundamentals. The majority of a modern F1 car is tightly defined by the rules, so there isn't scope these days to come out with a Lotus 88 or Tyrrell P34. But there is still a daunting set of basic parameters that you have to define before you can even start designing anything - things like wheelbase, drivetrain configuration, suspension layout, weight distribution. And when you're doing it for the first time, you don't have an in-built knowledge of what's worked in the past. Throw in some major rules changes in each of the last two off-seasons, and there are even more unknowns. On the other hand, knowing that you're facing a lot of unknowns also means you don't think you already know everything. Hubris has dashed far more dreams than humility.
I'm extremely fortunate in that I've been able to do most of the car's layout from day one - I've seen and had a hand in almost every step of its evolution. Primarily I've been responsible for the front and rear suspension, particularly packaging. This has been a huge challenge. F1 cars are small, and we are fitting a lot of stuff into a very tight volume. And we're doing a few things quite differently than they have been done in recent years. I can't give specifics (yet), but we've looked at everything with a fresh perspective, and come up with some different answers. We'll know whether they were the right or wrong answers soon enough, but our car certainly won't be a clone of anything else out there. And did you know that we're the only one of the four new teams designing our own gearbox...?
It sounds like a cliché, but I'm quite literally living the dream here, or at least my dream. For almost as far back as I can remember, I would wake up at 6:00am every other Sunday and watch the F1 race with my dad. He was a huge Lotus fan, so of course I was too. When I was nine years old I watched Nigel Mansell collapse pushing his car across the finish line in Dallas. A year later I watched Senna win his first race, a brilliant drive in the rain at Estoril. I would read all the F1 technical books I could get my hands on, examine die cast F1 cars for hours, and try to draw my own. Where my friends wanted to be astronauts or firemen, I wanted to be Colin Chapman.
I ended up going to Loughborough University in England, to get an Automotive Engineering degree, because I figured that would bring me closer to a spot in F1. During my summers home, I got a data acquisition engineering job with Bradley Motorsports, an Indy Lights team based in my hometown of Denver. But things don't always work out the way we plan, and by the time I was finishing my degree I had collected a nice stack of rejection letters from every existing F1 team (and Lotus Cars, of course).
I came to US F1 through a long association with Ken Anderson. We first worked together at Bradley almost exactly 15 years ago. As things worked out, he got the job to design the original G-Force IRL car just as I was finishing up at school, still wondering what the hell I would do with my life. The day after my last exam at Loughborough, I drove down to Sussex and started working on that car, which won its first race, then the Indy 500, and the IRL championship. Ken and I have worked together off and on ever since.
I had given up on ever getting into Formula 1 around a decade ago. By the time I was 25, I had a good degree from a UK university, I had been involved at a high level on the design of a couple of successful top level racing cars, I had designed racing shock absorbers, and I had written suspension geometry and vehicle simulation software. I still couldn't get so much as an interview with a team. I don't hold a grudge about it. I always felt it was more puzzling than anything else.
Almost as long as I have known him, Ken had talked about his plan to someday build an American F1 team, but I never put much stock in it. It seemed such an utterly impossible task. Until a couple of years ago, anyway, when he somehow managed to finally put all the pieces together. And now here we are, only a handful of weeks away from having our car run its first race. In less than a year we've built a very capable shop, put together the smartest and most talented group of people I've ever had the privilege of working with, and designed what should be a fast, reliable, safe, drivable, and yes, beautiful car.
This team means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but for me it's literally a dream come true. When those lights go out at the start of our first race, it will be both the end of a long road, and the start of a new one. I can't wait.
Almost nobody knows it, but this team has come an unbelievably long way since it was first announced on Speed TV 11 months ago. I was at that press conference, and I was one of the first three or four people to start working on the design of the car shortly afterwards, all of us crowded with our computers around a wobbly conference table in a dreary, poorly configured former Nascar shop. I wish I had taken pictures.
A strange quirk of my career is that every vehicle I have ever been involved in designing (including a few Indycars, an off-road trophy truck, and a composite aircraft) have all been clean sheet of paper designs. I don't know what it's like to start with something that already exists and try to refine it.
When we started this car, we started with nothing but fundamentals. The majority of a modern F1 car is tightly defined by the rules, so there isn't scope these days to come out with a Lotus 88 or Tyrrell P34. But there is still a daunting set of basic parameters that you have to define before you can even start designing anything - things like wheelbase, drivetrain configuration, suspension layout, weight distribution. And when you're doing it for the first time, you don't have an in-built knowledge of what's worked in the past. Throw in some major rules changes in each of the last two off-seasons, and there are even more unknowns. On the other hand, knowing that you're facing a lot of unknowns also means you don't think you already know everything. Hubris has dashed far more dreams than humility.
I'm extremely fortunate in that I've been able to do most of the car's layout from day one - I've seen and had a hand in almost every step of its evolution. Primarily I've been responsible for the front and rear suspension, particularly packaging. This has been a huge challenge. F1 cars are small, and we are fitting a lot of stuff into a very tight volume. And we're doing a few things quite differently than they have been done in recent years. I can't give specifics (yet), but we've looked at everything with a fresh perspective, and come up with some different answers. We'll know whether they were the right or wrong answers soon enough, but our car certainly won't be a clone of anything else out there. And did you know that we're the only one of the four new teams designing our own gearbox...?
It sounds like a cliché, but I'm quite literally living the dream here, or at least my dream. For almost as far back as I can remember, I would wake up at 6:00am every other Sunday and watch the F1 race with my dad. He was a huge Lotus fan, so of course I was too. When I was nine years old I watched Nigel Mansell collapse pushing his car across the finish line in Dallas. A year later I watched Senna win his first race, a brilliant drive in the rain at Estoril. I would read all the F1 technical books I could get my hands on, examine die cast F1 cars for hours, and try to draw my own. Where my friends wanted to be astronauts or firemen, I wanted to be Colin Chapman.
I ended up going to Loughborough University in England, to get an Automotive Engineering degree, because I figured that would bring me closer to a spot in F1. During my summers home, I got a data acquisition engineering job with Bradley Motorsports, an Indy Lights team based in my hometown of Denver. But things don't always work out the way we plan, and by the time I was finishing my degree I had collected a nice stack of rejection letters from every existing F1 team (and Lotus Cars, of course).
I came to US F1 through a long association with Ken Anderson. We first worked together at Bradley almost exactly 15 years ago. As things worked out, he got the job to design the original G-Force IRL car just as I was finishing up at school, still wondering what the hell I would do with my life. The day after my last exam at Loughborough, I drove down to Sussex and started working on that car, which won its first race, then the Indy 500, and the IRL championship. Ken and I have worked together off and on ever since.
I had given up on ever getting into Formula 1 around a decade ago. By the time I was 25, I had a good degree from a UK university, I had been involved at a high level on the design of a couple of successful top level racing cars, I had designed racing shock absorbers, and I had written suspension geometry and vehicle simulation software. I still couldn't get so much as an interview with a team. I don't hold a grudge about it. I always felt it was more puzzling than anything else.
Almost as long as I have known him, Ken had talked about his plan to someday build an American F1 team, but I never put much stock in it. It seemed such an utterly impossible task. Until a couple of years ago, anyway, when he somehow managed to finally put all the pieces together. And now here we are, only a handful of weeks away from having our car run its first race. In less than a year we've built a very capable shop, put together the smartest and most talented group of people I've ever had the privilege of working with, and designed what should be a fast, reliable, safe, drivable, and yes, beautiful car.
This team means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but for me it's literally a dream come true. When those lights go out at the start of our first race, it will be both the end of a long road, and the start of a new one. I can't wait.
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
John Anderson, racing legend, joins US F1 Team
January 9, 2010 – Ken Anderson, US F1 Team principal, president and CEO, is pleased to announce that John Anderson, a legendary figure in American open-wheel racing, will be US F1's Team Manager, effective immediately.
"I've known John and been close with him for nearly 20 years - to be able to hire someone as experienced, as organized and as successful as he is will only enhance our team as we move forward," said Anderson. "He is simply the best at what he does and knows what it takes to be successful in motorsports."
Anderson, originally from Sydney, Australia, first came to the U.S. in 1980, after some success running a prep and fab shop. "I came to the U.S. for what I thought was a few years and I've never left, and I've had some good runs," he said. "Now to be able to have the opportunity to work with America's Formula One team, especially with my longtime friend Ken Anderson, is an unbelievable opportunity. Ken's mindset of US F1 – to have an open mind, be flexible and explore best practices, is why I'm here and I want to be a part of this."
Starting off in Can-Am in California, Anderson moved to open wheel, working for a veritable "who's who" of American racers and teams as a mechanic, team manager and race strategist, from California to Vermont to New Mexico to Indianapolis. He's worked for Bill Alsup, Gerry Forsyth, Barry Green, Dan Gurney, Mike Curb, Rick Galles, A.J. Foyt Jr., Kenny Bernstein, Bruce McCaw and more, racking up two open-wheel championships and two Indy 500 wins, among other successes.
Most recently, Anderson was the team manager for Gil de Ferran's American Le Mans Series (ALMS) organization. "The parallels with the ALMS car and an F1 car, with their complexity and performance envelope, are very similar," he said. "An F1 car is of course the pinnacle of construction and technology, and to be involved is a high point of my career."
The team manager role has been one that Anderson has been practising since the early 1980s. Not only will Anderson be coordinating the team in the U.S. and in Europe, acting as a liaison between the engineers and shop staff and spearheading testing, but he'll be an informal team psychologist. "It's about getting the right group of guys who can work, live and play together, and also understanding where everyone's strengths and weaknesses are," said Anderson. "Ken and Peter Windsor have put together a strong group, and I can only help to strengthen the bonds and be a part of America's resurgence in the top motorsport in the world."
"I've known John and been close with him for nearly 20 years - to be able to hire someone as experienced, as organized and as successful as he is will only enhance our team as we move forward," said Anderson. "He is simply the best at what he does and knows what it takes to be successful in motorsports."
Anderson, originally from Sydney, Australia, first came to the U.S. in 1980, after some success running a prep and fab shop. "I came to the U.S. for what I thought was a few years and I've never left, and I've had some good runs," he said. "Now to be able to have the opportunity to work with America's Formula One team, especially with my longtime friend Ken Anderson, is an unbelievable opportunity. Ken's mindset of US F1 – to have an open mind, be flexible and explore best practices, is why I'm here and I want to be a part of this."
Starting off in Can-Am in California, Anderson moved to open wheel, working for a veritable "who's who" of American racers and teams as a mechanic, team manager and race strategist, from California to Vermont to New Mexico to Indianapolis. He's worked for Bill Alsup, Gerry Forsyth, Barry Green, Dan Gurney, Mike Curb, Rick Galles, A.J. Foyt Jr., Kenny Bernstein, Bruce McCaw and more, racking up two open-wheel championships and two Indy 500 wins, among other successes.
Most recently, Anderson was the team manager for Gil de Ferran's American Le Mans Series (ALMS) organization. "The parallels with the ALMS car and an F1 car, with their complexity and performance envelope, are very similar," he said. "An F1 car is of course the pinnacle of construction and technology, and to be involved is a high point of my career."
The team manager role has been one that Anderson has been practising since the early 1980s. Not only will Anderson be coordinating the team in the U.S. and in Europe, acting as a liaison between the engineers and shop staff and spearheading testing, but he'll be an informal team psychologist. "It's about getting the right group of guys who can work, live and play together, and also understanding where everyone's strengths and weaknesses are," said Anderson. "Ken and Peter Windsor have put together a strong group, and I can only help to strengthen the bonds and be a part of America's resurgence in the top motorsport in the world."
Monday, 11 January 2010
US F1 granted extra testing days
Team US F1 has been granted extra straight-line testing days for the 2010 season to help the preparations for its debut campaign.
The Charlotte-based outfit has already been allowed to conduct its initial pre-season tests in the United States, rather than be forced to travel to Europe to join the official runs that are taking place in Spain throughout February.
Now, as the outfit continues work on its 2010 car, the team has been told it will not face a further restriction in straight-line testing that was recently agreed by team principals.
The 2010 Sporting Regulations originally limited teams to just six straight-line test days, and discussions recently further cut this back to just four. These days can be exchanged for one day of wind-on full-scale tunnel time - which equates to four-hours of running.
Despite the latest agreement, which has yet to be put into the regulations, teams have agreed that US F1 can stick to the original six-day limit.
US F1 sporting director Peter Windsor told AUTOSPORT: "We have been given special dispensation to have six straight line/full-scale tunnel days, rather than the four to which all the other teams are limited.
"It is an example of how the FIA and the teams have gone out of their way to make us feel welcome."
The team's new car is scheduled to run for the first time in February at the Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama.
The Charlotte-based outfit has already been allowed to conduct its initial pre-season tests in the United States, rather than be forced to travel to Europe to join the official runs that are taking place in Spain throughout February.
Now, as the outfit continues work on its 2010 car, the team has been told it will not face a further restriction in straight-line testing that was recently agreed by team principals.
The 2010 Sporting Regulations originally limited teams to just six straight-line test days, and discussions recently further cut this back to just four. These days can be exchanged for one day of wind-on full-scale tunnel time - which equates to four-hours of running.
Despite the latest agreement, which has yet to be put into the regulations, teams have agreed that US F1 can stick to the original six-day limit.
US F1 sporting director Peter Windsor told AUTOSPORT: "We have been given special dispensation to have six straight line/full-scale tunnel days, rather than the four to which all the other teams are limited.
"It is an example of how the FIA and the teams have gone out of their way to make us feel welcome."
The team's new car is scheduled to run for the first time in February at the Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama.
Sunday, 3 January 2010
Peter Windsor's World
January 1, 2010 - Charlotte
It's great to be back in the USA! We're all complaining a little about everything closing down for the New Year but – believe me – America is currently much more industrious than the UK. Here, at our home base, we were quiet on Christmas Day (naturally) and then again today. The UK – and most of Europe – basically shut down on December 18 and will not stagger back to life until January 4. That's 16 valuable days lost in the too-short life of the F1 European winter.
And that's not all: remember the August F1 shut-down that was introduced for the first time in 2009? Well, it's happening again in 2010. Understand that most of Europe closes for August and you kind of understand the decision. Unless you're American, that is. As in Australia, August for Americans is just another working month in which some people maybe take a week or two away. There's no nationwide shut-down, as such – not of the type that regularly afflicts massive F1 teams like Ferrari. For years all of their suppliers have been shutting their doors for the month of August – and for years the European teams have been complaining that the situation has been growing worse, not better.
There was an F1 team meeting vote in the early fall about whether the 2009 F1 August shut-down had been a "success". I was impressed to hear the McLaren guys say that it was a waste of time and that most of their staff had found it all very frustrating, but sadly these were lone voices: the majority of the teams, led by Red Bull, it seemed to me, are firmly committed to the summer shut-down. And so shut down we will.
For now, though, it's winter in Charlotte; no doubt about that. It's a nice winter, though: the skies are invariably blue come lunch time and out the back of our factory, in the loading bays, we've already had the first of our team barbecues. Try doing that in the middle of the European winter!
I consistently make the comparison between here and there because our American base is the essence of US F1. I count on one hand the F1 people who, when we spoke about it, immediately grasped the logic of locating our team in North Carolina – and so you don't need me to tell you that "popular" F1 opinion was that it couldn't be done. Aside from the ease of setting up a facility like ours – the US F1 factory was an empty shell 14 weeks ago, remember – there is the support system around us. And the lack of congestion. And, for a company operating on the global stage via a European regulatory hub, the order and method of the US working day. You start as Europe is entering its afternoon frenzy, fresh and ready. You match that until lunch time – and then in the afternoon you move forwards, untroubled by interruptions from the F1 world outside. I remember my factory days at Williams as endless series of meetings and fragmented discussions; there were never the productive five or six hours we now have in the American afternoon.
So it's great to be back. The place is full of energy, full of expectation. No-one is taking anything for granted; everyone is working as hard as the human system will allow.
And the first chassis – top, bottom and nose – sits upon the Bay Cast flat plate in the R&D shop; it looks gorgeous. Soon we will be fitting all the electrical components, spring/damper units and suspension arms; the front and rear wing main planes are nearly finished and over in California Kenny Hill and Gordon Kimble are not too far away from completing the first batches of axles, hubs and bearing clusters. The car grows, in other words, with every passing day. It draws you like a magnet, away from your desk, just for a few moments, again to see its line. Then you quickly walk over to the boys in the composite department, where they're laying-up another mold, or to the machine shop, where the guys are programming another front upright. Then the phone rings and you're back in your office, talking on speakerphone, watching out the window as yet another group of visitors pulls up and walks towards Reception. Some are fans, flying in on spec from places like Florida or Wisconsin; most are suppliers or contacts, keen to help and only too happy to play a role.
I hope you like this website. As I've said before, it's for you, the F1 fan. Let us know what you think. Give us your input and your ideas. The stats – the website, Facebook, Twitter and video hits – tell us that you love it; remember, though, that this is just the start. We haven't yet raced; we haven't yet finished our first car. Huge growth is ahead of us – and that includes this site, too.
Thanks to everyone who so kindly sent gifts and cards over Christmas. I love the Paul Newman book; the Jim Clark driving gloves are a perfect fit; and I think Spencer Owyang's Christmas tree bauble will be the envy of every Ducati owner in the country.
Best wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy 2010.
It's great to be back in the USA! We're all complaining a little about everything closing down for the New Year but – believe me – America is currently much more industrious than the UK. Here, at our home base, we were quiet on Christmas Day (naturally) and then again today. The UK – and most of Europe – basically shut down on December 18 and will not stagger back to life until January 4. That's 16 valuable days lost in the too-short life of the F1 European winter.
And that's not all: remember the August F1 shut-down that was introduced for the first time in 2009? Well, it's happening again in 2010. Understand that most of Europe closes for August and you kind of understand the decision. Unless you're American, that is. As in Australia, August for Americans is just another working month in which some people maybe take a week or two away. There's no nationwide shut-down, as such – not of the type that regularly afflicts massive F1 teams like Ferrari. For years all of their suppliers have been shutting their doors for the month of August – and for years the European teams have been complaining that the situation has been growing worse, not better.
There was an F1 team meeting vote in the early fall about whether the 2009 F1 August shut-down had been a "success". I was impressed to hear the McLaren guys say that it was a waste of time and that most of their staff had found it all very frustrating, but sadly these were lone voices: the majority of the teams, led by Red Bull, it seemed to me, are firmly committed to the summer shut-down. And so shut down we will.
For now, though, it's winter in Charlotte; no doubt about that. It's a nice winter, though: the skies are invariably blue come lunch time and out the back of our factory, in the loading bays, we've already had the first of our team barbecues. Try doing that in the middle of the European winter!
I consistently make the comparison between here and there because our American base is the essence of US F1. I count on one hand the F1 people who, when we spoke about it, immediately grasped the logic of locating our team in North Carolina – and so you don't need me to tell you that "popular" F1 opinion was that it couldn't be done. Aside from the ease of setting up a facility like ours – the US F1 factory was an empty shell 14 weeks ago, remember – there is the support system around us. And the lack of congestion. And, for a company operating on the global stage via a European regulatory hub, the order and method of the US working day. You start as Europe is entering its afternoon frenzy, fresh and ready. You match that until lunch time – and then in the afternoon you move forwards, untroubled by interruptions from the F1 world outside. I remember my factory days at Williams as endless series of meetings and fragmented discussions; there were never the productive five or six hours we now have in the American afternoon.
So it's great to be back. The place is full of energy, full of expectation. No-one is taking anything for granted; everyone is working as hard as the human system will allow.
And the first chassis – top, bottom and nose – sits upon the Bay Cast flat plate in the R&D shop; it looks gorgeous. Soon we will be fitting all the electrical components, spring/damper units and suspension arms; the front and rear wing main planes are nearly finished and over in California Kenny Hill and Gordon Kimble are not too far away from completing the first batches of axles, hubs and bearing clusters. The car grows, in other words, with every passing day. It draws you like a magnet, away from your desk, just for a few moments, again to see its line. Then you quickly walk over to the boys in the composite department, where they're laying-up another mold, or to the machine shop, where the guys are programming another front upright. Then the phone rings and you're back in your office, talking on speakerphone, watching out the window as yet another group of visitors pulls up and walks towards Reception. Some are fans, flying in on spec from places like Florida or Wisconsin; most are suppliers or contacts, keen to help and only too happy to play a role.
I hope you like this website. As I've said before, it's for you, the F1 fan. Let us know what you think. Give us your input and your ideas. The stats – the website, Facebook, Twitter and video hits – tell us that you love it; remember, though, that this is just the start. We haven't yet raced; we haven't yet finished our first car. Huge growth is ahead of us – and that includes this site, too.
Thanks to everyone who so kindly sent gifts and cards over Christmas. I love the Paul Newman book; the Jim Clark driving gloves are a perfect fit; and I think Spencer Owyang's Christmas tree bauble will be the envy of every Ducati owner in the country.
Best wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy 2010.
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Windsor: No doubts on US F1 presence
US F1 sporting director Peter Windsor insists there are no doubts the his team will be on the grid at the start of the 2010 season.
Responding to comments made by Bernie Ecclestone in which the Formula 1 supremo suggested he had doubts about the American team, Windsor said the outfit is actually in good shape.
"I'm surprised Bernie said that. We will be there. We're in good shape," Windsor told BBC Sport. "Everything is going well and we are looking forward to the year.
"We've just finished the chassis and are now in the hands of Cosworth."
US F1 is the only of the new teams yet to sign a driver for its debut season, but Windsor said an announcement can be expected in the later part of January.
"We are trying to find the best drivers we can; there's no rush," he said. "We have no date [for car completion]. It's difficult to predict when that date would be.
"However, there will be a moment when we announce the drivers at the factory and that will be some time towards late January."
Responding to comments made by Bernie Ecclestone in which the Formula 1 supremo suggested he had doubts about the American team, Windsor said the outfit is actually in good shape.
"I'm surprised Bernie said that. We will be there. We're in good shape," Windsor told BBC Sport. "Everything is going well and we are looking forward to the year.
"We've just finished the chassis and are now in the hands of Cosworth."
US F1 is the only of the new teams yet to sign a driver for its debut season, but Windsor said an announcement can be expected in the later part of January.
"We are trying to find the best drivers we can; there's no rush," he said. "We have no date [for car completion]. It's difficult to predict when that date would be.
"However, there will be a moment when we announce the drivers at the factory and that will be some time towards late January."
Saturday, 21 November 2009
US F1 lines up Lopez as first driver
The new US F1 team is lining up Jose Maria Lopez as its first driver - provided the 26-year-old Argentine can put together a full sponsorship package.
Lopez announced on his personal website that he had concluded a provisional deal with US F1 after a visit to its factory in North Carolina earlier this week.
He has now returned to Argentina to work on finding the rest of the money required to secure his first Formula 1 race seat.
Lopez fell off the F1 radar in recent years after being hotly-tipped in the mid-1990s.
He won the 2003 Renault V6 Championship - the fore-runner of the World Series that Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel used as an F1 springboard - and then impressed in Formula 3000 a year later.
That earned him a place on Renault's driver development programme, and he was the team's F1 test driver for a while.
But he was unable to become a regular winner in GP2 and had to return to Argentina for the 2007 season.
Lopez then settled into his homeland's TC2000 touring car championship, which he is set to win for a second straight year if he can collect a few points from the final round later this month.
US F1's long-term aim is to bring American drivers into the world championship, but team bosses Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson have always admitted that with few suitable US racers available at the moment, its initial line-up will probably feature drivers from other nations.
Lopez announced on his personal website that he had concluded a provisional deal with US F1 after a visit to its factory in North Carolina earlier this week.
He has now returned to Argentina to work on finding the rest of the money required to secure his first Formula 1 race seat.
Lopez fell off the F1 radar in recent years after being hotly-tipped in the mid-1990s.
He won the 2003 Renault V6 Championship - the fore-runner of the World Series that Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel used as an F1 springboard - and then impressed in Formula 3000 a year later.
That earned him a place on Renault's driver development programme, and he was the team's F1 test driver for a while.
But he was unable to become a regular winner in GP2 and had to return to Argentina for the 2007 season.
Lopez then settled into his homeland's TC2000 touring car championship, which he is set to win for a second straight year if he can collect a few points from the final round later this month.
US F1's long-term aim is to bring American drivers into the world championship, but team bosses Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson have always admitted that with few suitable US racers available at the moment, its initial line-up will probably feature drivers from other nations.
Monday, 6 July 2009
US F1, new backers
US F1 joint boss Peter Windsor has promised that the new North Carolina-based Formula 1 team will boast a '21st century' sponsor package, and refused to deny that video website YouTube will be among its backers.
YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley attended the British Grand Prix with Windsor and his US F1 partner Ken Anderson.
In an interview with American broadcaster SPEED channel, Windsor was coy about US F1's chances of a YouTube tie-up.
"I did see Chad at Silverstone, he was around and it was good to see him there," said Windsor.
"People have tied him to our team, which is incredibly flattering, and who knows?
"We've got plenty of announcements that we'll be making shortly, and we'll be announcing the identities of all of our investors and quite a lot of other stuff as well, really exciting stuff.
"At the moment all I can say is that we've just got our heads down doing what is immediately important to us, which is building the team now that we've got our entry.
"But we have got a great investor group and it's going to take us into the 21st century in a way that you guys have never imagined."
Windsor also confirmed that the loss of the budget cap - a regulation that he had previously cited as key to the US F1 project - should not be an issue for the squad.
"The official limit has gone and of course that means that teams can now spend whatever they want," he said.
"But the point that [co-founder] Ken Anderson and I have been making from the start, that we believe we can do a lot more for less money than the other teams in the pit lane, is still incredibly valid.
"Although the teams are saying that the budget cap has gone, none of them are saying that they're going to carry on spending $250 to 400 million dollars a year.
"They're all saying that they're going to cut back.
"Our point is that if you take whatever that number is, whether it's 30 million or 200 million, we're going to be able to do more with that number because of the way we're doing the team.
"We're starting from zero, which is a big help in terms of keeping costs down and not having to absorb redundant systems, and beyond that we believe in the philosophy of American technology, and I think that's going to give us a lot of advantages in many areas.
YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley attended the British Grand Prix with Windsor and his US F1 partner Ken Anderson.
In an interview with American broadcaster SPEED channel, Windsor was coy about US F1's chances of a YouTube tie-up.
"I did see Chad at Silverstone, he was around and it was good to see him there," said Windsor.
"People have tied him to our team, which is incredibly flattering, and who knows?
"We've got plenty of announcements that we'll be making shortly, and we'll be announcing the identities of all of our investors and quite a lot of other stuff as well, really exciting stuff.
"At the moment all I can say is that we've just got our heads down doing what is immediately important to us, which is building the team now that we've got our entry.
"But we have got a great investor group and it's going to take us into the 21st century in a way that you guys have never imagined."
Windsor also confirmed that the loss of the budget cap - a regulation that he had previously cited as key to the US F1 project - should not be an issue for the squad.
"The official limit has gone and of course that means that teams can now spend whatever they want," he said.
"But the point that [co-founder] Ken Anderson and I have been making from the start, that we believe we can do a lot more for less money than the other teams in the pit lane, is still incredibly valid.
"Although the teams are saying that the budget cap has gone, none of them are saying that they're going to carry on spending $250 to 400 million dollars a year.
"They're all saying that they're going to cut back.
"Our point is that if you take whatever that number is, whether it's 30 million or 200 million, we're going to be able to do more with that number because of the way we're doing the team.
"We're starting from zero, which is a big help in terms of keeping costs down and not having to absorb redundant systems, and beyond that we believe in the philosophy of American technology, and I think that's going to give us a lot of advantages in many areas.
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