Campos has the nephew of the world's most famous racing driver, the publicity that will bring next season will bring Campos a lot more tv airtime than Lopez, sponsors want exposure during F1 transmissions, Senna will be probably the most closely watched driver after Schumacher, Alonso and Hamilton

If I was a sponsor I would back Campos over USF1

As a sponsor you are buying a billboard.

Campos billboard is being built by a company with a solid reputation for producing racing cars and fulfilling contracts.

USF1's billboard is being nailed together by someone who claims being technical director of Onyx/Monteverdi as a career highlight.

If your company wants to by space on a car, it should probably go for a car it knows exists.

lets look at the logic of the highlighted line.
A team with a budget of multi-millions uses who their managers daughter to make the videos?
Or perhaps a new start up company of kids straight from school.
I dont think so.
Or perhaps their media department hired the cheapest guys they could find on the street?
Sorry any company knows that the work is too important to trust it to the inexperienced and should have either hired professionals or ensured they employed some people with experience.
The buck has to stop with USF1 when it comes to the quality of the videos as in the end they are the client and they are the ones who say they are the ones who sign off the job. Conversly also they are the ones who also get the praise for the 3rd video too.

how good is this bob varsha - seemed strange to suggest no team has been started from scratch 'in decades' - which for me means at minimum 1990-present. it doesn't take much to think of quite a few.

I thought the same thing .

The hapless guy means well though, I don't hate on him (even though my roommate does).

You mean Toro Rosso right? Here

He did say that no non-manufacture team has started from scratch. And I can't think of one that started from scratch - that means from nothing, nil, nada, zilch.

Sure, if they're an establish company with plenty of funds to hire the best. USF1 is a brand new racing team without even one race behind them yet. I doubt they selected the top media firm in America to put together videos for them. They said from the start that they wanted to make video available as part of their new approach; the lack of a certain slickness is almost endearing, in a way. It highlights their start-up status and makes them seem more human. Perhaps that's by design.

Did folks really expect them to arrive working at the level of old pros like McLaren and Ferrari, or even armed with the media skills of Virgin? They might be called USF1, but the team isn't a US government funded project, one of the well-financed veteran squads and it's not a manufacturer works team either. They're just a little race team, a bit of a culmination of a dream for a few people involved, who took the opportunity to jump into F1 during a period of relative cost reductions. They may have a rich investor, but he hasn't shown any public inclination, thus far, to put himself on the line financially any further than he has to. If they make a go of it, long term, and they're still churning out the same level of media, then I'll pick on them. For now, I'll give them a pass and a small hand clap for at least starting to deliver on those over ambitious promises.

I think the last was... wait for it... Lola Mastercard.

ouch

Doesn't seem like the sponsors are as keen on the idea as you are though... Campos is struggling financially and has recently admitted as much.

The reasoning behind Campos signing Senna was to attract sponsors. Somehow it seems like the sponsors aren't as keen about the Campos/Senna association as you are (and Campos had hoped), otherwise Campos should have secured sponsorship by now.

We don't know anything about USF1's sponsorship but I suspect that a company like BestBuy (have been rumoured to be one potential USF1 sponsor) would rather go with USF1 over Campos/Senna. Would get lots of goodwill in the US for sponsoring the "home team" if they chose USF1.

I think the B.Senna effect is greatly exaggerated. Just because he carries the senna name doesn't automatically elevate him to star status, and I don't believe he will be anymore attractive to the majority of sponsers than any of the other new drivers.

I can't hear him say "non-manufacturer" team though, anybody else who can confirm this?

Anyway, he said decades which means at least 20 years (a decade is 10 so plural must mean at least 20?). So which new teams have been built up from scratch in the last 20 years?



I wouldn't say that the Lola Mastercard team was built from scratch, they are more of a paralell to Campos Dallara. Lola used the IndyCar technology already in house to build the F1 car. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MasterCard_Lola

I think that the Stewart team is actually the last team to be built from scratch, similar to USF1. Stewart then became Jaguar and is now the RedBull team.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Grand_Prix



Care to name at least some of the many teams that have been started from scratch in the last decades? I'm not saying he is right or you are wrong, we have already established that Stewart was started from scratch 14 years ago which is "only" a decade and half ago...

No parallel there, mate.
Stewart had Ford support since day one.

But this whole thing "Lola is like Campos", "Lola is like USF1", et cetera doesn't make much sense.

I didn't say anything about support from outside sources did I? I just said they started from scratch (just like USF1 is doing). Not if they had a major company supporting them or not.... You can't just take three words from a sentence and quote them out of context

And your last sentence doesn't make any sense to me Who said "Lola is like Campos" and "Lola is like USF1"???

Simtek were a new entity as far as I can remember. They didn't have Manufacturer support, just Mosley.

I wonder if USF1 is so strapped for cash that they cant afford to sign Heidfeld??

If this team has any chance of a decent season next year they need at least one credible driver.

Rossiter and Lopez dont cut the mustard(Well i want to wait and see on Lopez, he cold be good but i would like to measure him against a known driver). How the hell are they going to know if the car is fast or not.

Another example of a statement that is lacking in factual basis. Then some of you run with it as it is the truth. The person responsible for USF1 in house media is Jason Markham. The film business in Los Angeles dwarfs F1 and making such a statement is an example of the unfounded hubris involved when some speak of F1.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0997447/

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jason-markham/9/264/579

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simtek

So, not a completely from scratch F1 team they started as a consultancy company and made chassis for clients before becoming a F1 team.

"I don't care who ya are that right thar is funny"

Senna more watched than Vettel? I doubt it. Weber? Don't think so. Senna's notoriety is due more to his surname than his actual accomplishments.

And I guess it also depends on whether you regard Stewart as an outgrowth of Paul Stewart's F3000 team or not.

Does Honda's involvement disqualify Super Aguri?

Senna won't be more 'watched than Alonso, Schumacher, Hamilton, Massa, Rosberg, Vettel , Button or Webber. Even Hulkenberg and possibly Kobayashi.

Could you please provide a source for your claim that Jason Markham does in house media for USF1?

I'm not saying you are wrong but since you accused other posts lacking in facts it would be nice if you could back up your statement with some facts.

v
v
v


--//--

That makes USF1 operation not similar (see above) to Stewart.

--//--

I was pointing out that this discussion that not only you are involved leads to nowhere.
All those mentioned operations had their on characteristics (specially concerning funding and technical partnerships) that it's difficult to compare with each-other.

Pacific comes to my mind.

In the same way.

If I can't have Simtek. (Of course DFV is right, although I may try to argue that thay just had a very long and unconventional start up. ) The Honda and Arrows connection disqualify Super Aguri.

You would still be able to add Kubica, Trulli and Barrichello.
Possibly, Di Grassi.

"USF1’s Jason Markham, whose background is in producing films and live sports programming, leads an in-house media production unit."

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/63344

He also sits on the Commercial development Working group
http://www.teamsassociation.org/working-groups


And much more importantly drove for USF1 team 1 at the 12hrs de Charlotte kart race.
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/63344

Ah, I forgot about Paul Stewarts F3000 team.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Grand_Prix

So maybe built from scratch (as per Wikipedia article) but with closer connections with a established race team. I think that Stewart started up at a different location than Paul Stewart Racing and wasn't seen as a continuation of that team.

Thanks

Maybe it was my choice of words as English is my second language. I didn't mean similar as in "equal in every way" but just that both teams had been built from scratch. My comment was meant to have the same meaning as saying that both a Mercedes and a Ford is similar in that they both are mass produced. Not that the cars are similar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Racing





So, not a start up from scratch in my book.

However we are a bit off topic here, but it seems like Varha's comment about "built from scratch" F1 teams in the last decades actually wasn't very wrong.

When he said there hasn't been one started from scratch in decades I think he means starting literally from nothing, no lower series cars, no previous racing experience at all as a team.

Not problem at all. Maybe I was the one who expressed myself badly.
I didn't understand the rant against my previous comment, just that.

Edit:

That's how I've understood.

Which is exactly what we are discussing and so far it seems like we haven't found to many in the last decades (Stewart might be the closest we are, but even they had run a F3/F3000 team before setting up Stewart GP).

That's probably the closest in the last twenty years. If they don't count, then do we have to go back to Life? That doesn't sound like a good omen for USF1

(Well, Life did have the abandoned FIRST chassis, so even they weren't totally from scratch. Might as well have been, though).

Hum, looking at his background, I have to say I'd expect a little better start from his production team (I assume he has a small one for this project) but then again, one has to work with the resources and people available. Things are just getting going with USF1, and all of them, media team included, are only now beginning to get familiar with each other and what it's like to pull all this together in a short time frame.

I still won't rip into USF1 over media quality, not just yet, and I consider being in charge of in house media for a race team in a top series, any top series, a rather big job, not inferior in any way to much his past work, and has the potential to be much higher profile than some of it.

The film industry in LA is a very big industry indeed, and folks have production companies at all levels within it. Markham's list of productions shows that he's not a hack by any means, but not LA superstar producer either. I'd bet he's pretty pleased to be in on the USF1 story right from the start, but I'd also be very, very shocked if he's been handed a huge budget to do with as he pleases, or the time to put it all together as well as he'd like right now.

You do realize I was trying to give the team the benefit of being a start up, not bashing them, right? If they've put oodles of cash into media, then I can't think quite as kindly of their video output thus far.

I agree with you and was a bit surprised at the tone of his reply to your post. However it is a plus for the team to have someone experienced even though his resume isn't exactly Hollywood fame stuff and their budget might not be on blockbuster levels. And even on "professional" documentaries on TV they have people that isn't the most articulate being interviewed. I also preferred episode 2 and 3 and that would probably have been a better start on their YouTube episodes.

@DFV

Agreed. The next instalments show improvement already, which is why I think these guys will get better and better as they go along. More familiarity with the people and facilities + longer post production time + (hopefully) bigger budgets = higher quality video. I think the team has made a decent choice with Markham's company, since he's got a background in the right type of documentary.

Edit: USF1 have their own, on site mini-studio, don't they? I would imagine that the YouTube videos are being edited right there, soon after they're filmed, and uploaded fairly quickly. I think this sounds like what the team planned all along – a quick 'n dirty style, inside peek at the day to day goings on at USF1 headquarters. Once they have a car to show off, I'm sort of expecting little videos on a frequent basis.

Ah, the good old days

Still my favourite team.

Well no matter how unprofessional or nerdy, over the top it all looks.. The only thing that's going to say anything about any team are the cars + drivers when they show up at the races

That is presuming that a place is still available in 2020.

According to their twitter feed, they were working on "radiator fitment" yesterday morning and linked to this pic: http://fb.me/2SbZ0Ph

Today they linked to this one http://fb.me/4omWG4k saying the carbon fiber cutting table is one of their busiest machines.

http://www.facebook.com/USF1Team#/photo.ph...id=223461686185

Well I can certianly say that table is busy...

I was more interested in the radiator fitment. I'd like to see what they're fitting it to.

Perhaps Mr Composite will come back and inform us...

Whether they make it or not, I have to give them credit that they are even with their school video club grade videos the only half interesting thing happening in F1 this winter break.

DFV, out of interest, how many of these tables does USF1 have in operation?

I've been through Williams during the day, and the composite cutting department had about two dozen people working in it.

I saw a video of David Coulthard making a brake pedal in the McLaren department and there were also heaps of those tables.

I know we can only base our assumptions on what USF1 is showing us, but I question whether they'll have the manufacturing capacity to make enough parts through a season, especially if their crash bill is high, which is could be running near the back of the field in a 26-car grid with two inexperienced drivers.