Like what? Most disposale parts such as brakes, electrics, wheels, shocks, engines, (gearbox?) would be sourced from Europe and wouldn't need to be shipped trans Atlantic twice. The costs would get heavy when things like floorboards and engine covers need to be replaced. For that it could make sense to have the required autoclaves and CNC cutters also located in Spain, but that equipment is expensive.

The biggest advantages of having shop in America is lower wages and overhead costs.

Yep, we'll see in 11 weeks!

Right chaps, nice chatting, time to dash.

Maybe because they work in dollars and not euros, and the dolar is devaluated in relation with the euro?

Then it would be more expensive, not cheaper.

Please keep attacks ad hominem out of this thread.

Well to be fair it could easily be a case of having big ideas, and then when the reality bites the priorities change.

Are wages etc. that much less stateside? I would have thought they would have to pay a premium if they want to tap into the existing F1 talent.

It would be more expensive if they were buying all their parts in Europe, which they are not

the cost of living is the Carolinas is really really cheap compared to say NYC/Chicago/California.. The salaries in this area are relative to the cost of living.. The racing industry in America is based on these states..

Wages are less, the whole cost of living is.

How much existing F1 talent do they need? Composite design and production is very advanced in the U.S., as is machining and engineering. I could be very wrong, but most experience a Grand Prix team needs is in the race team, but that is kept in Europe. I'm sure the top engineers would require a higher retainer, but most staff in a G.P. team are involved with assembly, construction and drafting.

Not as much the wages, but more to do with the fact that taxes and cost of living are cheaper stateside then in Europe. Charlotte especially has been known to be a relatively cheap place to live in the US.

Also, keep this in mind for all of you wondering about finances and workforce and machines and all that jazz: NASCAR over the past year has laid off a lot of good engineers and other race personnel. Between shops closing, merging, or just plain downsizing from the small shops all the way to Hendrick Motorsports there are going to be a lot of labor available in the Charlotte area alone that has racing experience and tools that will be cheap. Hell, their factory was an old truck series team's place, IIRC.

But you weren't talking about development parts, you were talkng about smashed up cars.
And either way, what development parts would there be now anyway.

And besides that, do the teams not come with ample spares for a race weekend anyway

they are a US-based team


That's the end of it.


Complain complain Force India is not really Indian

Complain complain Red Bull is not really Austrian

Complain complain USF1 is really American

Which is it? All teams have to be English do they?

if they get a deal with say fed ex or something then it wont be a big deal imo

Well, won't be FedEx as they are a McLaren sponsor. I doubt UPS would be interested as they already have a NASCAR ride (even if the driver sucked this year). I don't know about anyone else.

DHL ?

Have almost completely left the United States market resulting in 14,000 layoffs since 2008. Would be especially bad if F1 ever returned to Indy, as their old base (Wilmington, OH) is a few hours away and still hasn't recovered from them pulling out.

Been reading through the last few pages and smiling at some of the anti US F1 comments made, some of them are really on the verge of being desperate

Why keep on, in post after post, about how expensive and difficult it's going to be to ship parts from the states when the European based teams has to do that in 10 (more than half) of the races anyway? And how long does it take to get parts from the UK to mainland Europe compared to flying them in from the US. I have imported lots of car parts and have had faster delivery from the US than from the UK. Time might be an issue in some cases, but that goes for the European based teams as well. And how expensive is air freight really these days??? And don't you think the UK teams fly some of their parts to mainland Europe as well (when getting a express delivery or important updates for the race)? It really shows that some people are desperate to try and set the US team in a bad light...

The Spain base will also make transportation easier for the European races, than being based in the UK. Spain is also a less costly country to operate in than England (AFAIK).

I have been a cautious supporter of the USF1 team and some of the reasons for this is:

They are doing it in a different way (sometimes this actually proves to be better than the established way - sometimes not)
They are based in the US (I have lots of family in the US, have been there several times, the US has a different attitude to Europe and it's OK to succeed and prosper - everything is not governed by Brussels bureaucrats, the US played a central part in keeping Europe free)
They are underdogs

I cheer on USF1 the more people try to make up stories or interpret their financial situation, lack of fancy multimedia studios, no car, bad car (when there is shown the actual production of a tub), wrong clothing, wrong attitude of the people in the movies, wrong facial expressions etc. Some of the comments are so hilarious that I think they are probably written by, or on second thoughts let me not say that...(how can the facial expressions of the employees have anything to do with the topic of this thread???).

I really do hope that the team makes a decent car.

DFV

being based in england doesnt make you english, its just that england is a decent middle ground for travel along with facilities already built that can be used.

i dont think anybody has suggested any of them teams are not of thier country.

USF1 is just altogether fishy. they were tauting all this rubbish about being so far ahead at 1 point, and building this and that and having a hugely technical facilities.

as has been pointed out previously in the very few videos we've seen, USF1 is fishy. these are my reasons to doubt there viability for next season:

1)Lack of drivers signed
2)no apparant sponsor deals ($20 million youtube investment is the only told about sponsor)
3)Facilities that resemble my old school wood tech shop (just a bare workshop, with a sketch on the wall of an F1 car)
4)Staff that resembles a bunch of mates in a garage building a go cart (no uniforms, no signs of team apparal, 1 guy has an old england football top, what happened to being all american, with american engineers?)
5)Website with more typos/errors than my forum posts
6)the TV studio as pointed out on the previous page... (very average joe, and the £25 iphone headphones is just weird for a 'tv studio')

somebody posted above that they could come out and do a Brawn come next year... no they cant, they havent spent 18months, 400million dollars and have the technical genius that is ross brawn there. what they have is a garage space with a few machines, a home video camera and peter windsors office.

it is being picky of us all, but when you look at these and then you look at others, they just dont look anywhere near what they should. at the very best they are going to turn up on the grid and be quite a way off the pace. somebody said that americans dont care about F1 as its a small piece in the motorsport world, this is just typical american soloism, they honestly couldn't care less about competing with the world, look at American 'Football', Baseball and there love for nascar, all inter country competitions, yet they fail when they go up against anything resembling an organised sport globally. no wonder USf1 isn't going to get anywhere, the american public has no aspiration to achieve on a global scale where F1 is the most viewed sport in the world. truely sad.

What a hilarious thread!

I'm gonna guess you're an Anti-American troll, but in case you aren't (I apologize in advance) I will argue against you anyway.

To address your 6 points individually.

1) Lopez is signed, just unannounced.
2) If you read the Lopez thread, you'll know Lopez is bringing Visa Credit Card, Claro Mobile, TC2000 and Argentine Tourism as sponsors. Plus Best Buy signed with them months ago.
3) They're a small budget team, what do you expect? How do we know Campos or Virgin have better facilities?
4) The team is brand new, their concern is building a car. At least they're showing you what's going on behind the scenes.
5) Granted you're correct, but sadly, so does your post I'm responding to.
6) Any other team probably would have better production values. But who else would actually show you their garage.

To clear another point, anyone who thinks USF1 will pull a Brawn is out of their minds. They'll likely be backmarkers in their first year. As will Campos.

As for Americans not caring about F1, Tire-Gate left a very bad taste in their mouths. (Look at the Attendance from 2000-2005 and then the last 2 years, a major drop off).

Finally to address the lack of Americans in international motorsport, there are 4 Americans competing in MotoGP next year. In fact it has gotten popular enough, that their are 2 American Rounds. Plus for the first time in decades, there are numerous Americans in the developmental stages leading to F1 (Rossi, Hildebrand, Summerton), spurred the the slow impending death of American Open-Wheel racing.

So the only accurate part of your post at the moment is the "USF1 won't be a BrawnGP", because let's face it, they won't.

im not anti-american, i quite like america and the few times ive been there they've been very nice people. just to clarify.

1)Lopez isnt signed, they are talking, like how kimi was talking to mclaren, and so was heidfeld aswell as talking to mercedes. i hardly even consider them articles valid evidence. plus hes hardly a worthy driver, the grand scheme of windsor is this guy? id rather have bourdais or somebody whos actually been in F1, theres plenty to choose from.
2)if he signs. as of yet, no sponsors.
3)America's F1 team is going to be a backyard job? thats pretty bad and confirms my opinion on the lack of commitment to world sports by america. Campos and Virgin(backed by richard branson... aswell as there much better driver lineup) dont need to show us, you ever seen richard branson go half way?
4)they've released 1 video, hardly the full coverage peter windsor was tauting to us. unless that is everything...
5)the joke of my forum posts (which i just started so u needn't point it out...) was a dig at my inability to be pedantic about typos when posting in a forum, i hardly think the dictionary police need to come out when im fully aware of it.
6)check youtube, plenty of videos of teams facilities. simply using the words F1 Factory and a teams name beforehand i got up BMW, Red Bull, Mclaren, Renault i stopped at this point but you get my drift.

i didnt say motorsport, i said sport, as in everything. They generally don't care about global sport, im not talking drivers/riders involved in the sport, im talking american public, the people, it is widely regarded that not many watch F1 which is the largest watched Motorsport. what about Football 'soccer'? tiny in comparison to your national sports. Rugby? this is why USF1 has no officially recognised sponsors yet and why they will probably fail, because the american public just isnt backing it, they generally dont care about these areas and would prefer to enjoy there national in house sports such as basketball, Baseball, NFL and NHL. this isnt being anti-american im just sighting reasons why USF1 could possibly flop badly.

Peter Windsor isnt helping this with his lack lustre displays. please Lopez? how is that inspiring Americans to jump on board of the band wagon.

this isnt a dig at americans, it isnt even a dig at USF1, its a point of view as to why i feel this just isnt going to add up to something inspiring. i cant see them being ahead of any team on the grid with the start its had and then in years to come due to the poor foundations, wheres the proven test drivers? the people with experience to start a team and make it go places, places a team named USF1 should be?

my personal thought of the outcome will be that they'll get to the grid in Bahrain but will drop out mid season.

as we get closer to the season the criticism is now shifting towards the team dropping mid-season when several months ago it was about the team not making the first race.
by the end of 2010 we'll have the same posters criticizing their poor performance or maybe they'll continue with their usual rants about t-shirts and ipods.

I dunno what you guys are on about with the perceived so-called anti-Americanism... my impression about that is that its simply wrong to slap that name on a small aspiring outfit led by Windsor..

I guess most people would have expected a new team bearing that name to arrive with massive funding, signing all sorts of big names, to enter the sport with a hell of a 'bang!'...

As it is now, if we exclude the name, what we actually got is one of the least convincing effort between the new teams.. (and by extention of the whole field)

I know that if they survive, it won't matter much who drove for them in the first year, but in that aspect alone they are shooting well below par already, it's annoying

ive always felt they'd make the grid, i just dont feel they'll make the season, when the inexperienced drivers start putting the cars into walls and they dont have the money or parts to cover they are going to be in trouble. and purely 1 aspect which is the racing.

ipods and t-shirts just dont flatter the eyes and leave you a little wary is my only reason for pointing them out.



bingo, USF1, when you watch the videos and look at the website, does that really make you think that is a worthy effort for a nation like the USA, no it doesnt, and anybody who thinks it is is insane.

if this was a small brand just wanting to have some fun then sure have a small rather fishy operation. but to name yourself USf1 and come out looking like this, dont you feel its underwhelming?

and what makes you think that is what most people would have expected. ?
I personally would never have expected that with the current economic cimate and teams dropping like flies. Everyone is f1 for the past year has been commenting how F1 is so expensive and not lucrative to investors/sponsors.

Golf. Americans are very good at golf, which is an organised global sport.

Basketball. Americans are very good at basketball, which is an organised global sport.

how about checking out the gold medal count at the olympics..

Yeah, but that's the problem...

the name says otherwise, but USF1 is kinda about failing honourably.. it's like the Jamaican bobsleigh team, without Disney, John Candy and Jamaica.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106611/

I am sorry to dissapoint some of you but f1 is not a sport.

a chubby american came 3rd in the dakar in a 2 wheel drive hummer last year

chevy has competed at le mans for years

theres not a massive of cross pollination between motorsport regions.

american drivers are much more likely to do the odd race in other series when they can, average f1 driver does f1 season and maybe 1 small event

They are a private company based in America not a team funded by the USA.

http://www.usgpe.com/schedule.html

They have corrected their schedule, thank you USF1!

Did I just read Windsor comparing himself to Winston Churchill?

True, that was the idea though wasn't it, in a sense? Call it USF1, get lots of nationalistic US sponsorship. Hasn't worked though.

If you are really pissed off about Anti-Americanism I'm not sure how you think a gem of a post like this is going to help matters.

There's nothing wrong with holding doubts or being skeptical you know. People who take the time to come to this thread and post their feelings obviously care about how the team will pan out.

I would really love to see a "Team USA" my problem with USF1 is that I fear that they are going to make themselves a laughing stock and in doing so destroy any growing enthusiasm for F1 in the USA.

There is just so much in their blog that's ridiculous beyond belief including harking back to working practices and technology of ten or fifteen years ago as though the world has stood still without US input.

It's all a bit chicken and egg. If the US fanbase isn't really there, why would US sponsers bother?

yeah that was quite a weird analogy wasn't it? I mean F1 and the Boer war, what is he smoking?

yeah isn't it? I dislike that chicken-egg thing...

Egg: I like Nascar. So can I get decent broadcasting of it in my country?
Chicken: NO.
Egg: Why not?
Chicken: Because it isn't popular here.
Egg: Why is it not popular here?
Chicken: Because nobody watches it.
Egg: Well they obviously can't watch it can they? Cause you don't broadcast it.
Chicken: Oh shut up. And go watch football.

As others have mentioned, Charlotte is not an expensive place to set up a racing business so yes, taking into consideration a lower cost of living (which means smaller salary requirements) and an established local industry with, no doubt, attractive tax breaks it could be financially doable to be at least partially based in NC.



That's not actually true; keep in mind that the US has two neighbouring countries – Canada and Mexico. Most of the sports leagues over here have a majority of teams based in the United States along with a few in Canada because it's convenient, cost-effective and, to be honest, we favour some different sports than most of the world. In Canada, for instance, we love hockey. There's not that many other hockey countries out there and it just so happens that few of them have large populations and none, other than the US, are nearby. Hence, the NHL has teams in two countries and the world championships are not globally anticipated like the way the World Cup is. The same goes for American football (NFL)...not a lot of interest or participation anywhere else so who are they going to play against? Does anyone else other than Canada even have an American-style football league (CFL) and our game isn't even identical to theirs, nor are we as into the sport as they are.

The separated aspect of sports over here isn't a lack of desire for international sporting competition but more a factor of geographic reality – Canada and the United States are HUGE land masses separated by oceans from most of the other countries playing the sports we like best. It's cheaper and easier for everyone to stay at home. Besides, the US does fine in the world sports they join (as does Canada, considering our much smaller population) and people over here can be just as obnoxious about international athletic dominance as anyone else.

I wonder if Peter Windsor has ever heard of "milestones" or "planning dates" etc.... all extremely vague...all very loose... so far lots of empty bla-bla... even resorting to pathetically trying to sound convincingly by stating his employment record at Williams and Ferrari... (which was in the mid eighties and early nineties)

At least if Bernie comes out and publicly doubts whether the team will make it on the grid, then please come out with some dates, planning etc etc...If I were a sponsor and hearing all sorts of public doubts and not hearing any counter arguments from the team... I would not know whether to take this team seriously.

Not as good as BrianKerramba

That's really cool!

'' As popular as a fart in a lift ''

Classic

Ever watch the Olympics?

Add to that, hmmm lets see.
Tour de France, numerous tennis opens..
No, I guess he was right, USA just can't produce any winners, can they

Watch any motorcycle racing the last 40 years?