Is like you are in this crash test you have a car.
From Jonatan Summerton Twiter

What?



Sure, lets make a small $10 wager...Actually, I'd be very happy if you're right and they are in Bahrain with two fully racable cars - very happy to lose that bet...

I truly hope so. Can't stand him. Of course I would extend the same wish to all his collegues working at SpeedTV. What a bunch of incompetent and over biased "journalists".

You sir spoke the truth. Amen.

I have nothing against Matchett and I can't see how anybody hates David Hobbs.

Varsha can be annoying sometimes though. He likes to gossip about drivers too often.

QUOTE (redevil @ Feb 15 2010, 22:21)
I truly hope so. Can't stand him. Of course I would extend the same wish to all his collegues working at SpeedTV. What a bunch of incompetent and over biased "journalists".




As I said I dont like biased "journalism". They should be very aware - and I am sure they are but just don't care - that not all their viewers are McLaren fans.

Even Hobbs last year was getting a bit into Hamilton, but not as bad as Peter Hamilton for the last few years, he would just overflow with Hamilton love. If you are ever near Peter for some odd reason, never mention rain and Hamilton in the same sentence... I feel so sorry for Lopez, having to measure up constantly to that benchmark.

USF1 will not fail for the simple reason that one day Peter will get Hamilton on the team (I know hell will freeze over first, but you get my drift).

In other non-related but related news, there was no news again from USF1. They do tend to release news on Tuesdays over any other day though, for some odd reason. But I did like the fact that I talked to someone inside the team, so that was kinda cool. Even if it was the receptionist most likely, she said they were working hard! Then she said she had to go mount tires, and hung up. (ok the last part was made up, but not the part about talking to someone in the team)

Edit: Nothing new, but a different source at least, but probably just a version of another source: http://www.record.xl.pt/noticia.aspx?id=6a...0000100&h=7

Well this week is supposed to be crucial, isn't? If I recall correctly they are supposed to be passing their crash test this week. They must be very concentrated on that right now.

Yeah, it could be about USF1, the ad says "Formula 1 Race Shop in Charlotte NC" anyway, could be a clue right there?

This ad with very little success, who wanna buy a building with a tenant likely to be belly-up next week or so?

Raz

Indeed, it would be a shame for a new team owner that was overly enthusiastic to sully the reputation of a sport that was has in the last few years...

Had the commercial rights holder offer praise for Adolf Hitler.

Had the head of the sanction caught in a Nazi themed SM prostitution scandal.

Had two cases of stolen documents passed to other teams.

Had a the team of a former world champ deliberately lie to race stewards.

Have a team orchestrate a safety car condition with contact on purpose to manipulate a race.

It would be a tragedy if this garden variety exaggerator was lumped into the same group as these world class perverts, liars, thieves and charlatans.

@loki:

When I was a kid, people used to tell me; "Ugly is ok, but stupid is not". Windsor is stupid, Flavio's not.

Raz

He's not stupid he's just way out of his depth. He has two or three decades experience in media and PR and he was floundering badly in that recent interview with Lopez.

They don't have too many tuesdays left. If I was them I'd release ANY positive news right away when available.

Maybe they are working only from tuesdays to thursdays? Actually I'm hoping they (Windsor, Andersons, CompositeKen etc. ) are working their butts off 24/7 and that's why we don't hear anything from them. At least I'd work, even though I'm a European.

I really REALLY hope they somehow make it to Bahrain. I love all these new small teams as a big fan of early '90s F1.

I agree, that piece on Youtube was outright embarassing, how could they even release it, he was nowhere?

Me too; those small teams brought flavour in the sport. Boy I misse teams like Zakspeed, Osella, Rial, Onyx, Eurobrun, AGS, Coloni, Larrousse, RAM,... It also gave a lot of opportunities for F3000 drivers. An American team would be really awesome.

Yes I'm with you on that William, but in this particular case it is bizarre that in a business that relies so heavily on positive PR etc., that USF1 is so quiet. And an American team would be an excellent addition.

Absolutely and I think F1 needs an American team but it would have been better to see a team like Penske back; I'm sure Penske still has the capacity to build an F1 car and be reasonably competitive.

Not you?

I cannot, but the condition could supply a good negotiation position. The place is going strong with motor sport, so for those who are interested in better factory with less money, this can be in any ways a good occasion.

Isn't Feb 18 the last day to complete crash testing? If so we should know in two more days whether USF1 will be on the grid in Bahrian, presumably no show for crash test or no pass means game over.

It depends - if they applied for special dispensations for whatever reason and it was granted, they could well be given a later date.

I see, so this is the last scheduled test, but there is a possibility for an ad hoc one? Damn, I thought at last we might know whether they're going to make it or not, this could drag on for another 4 weeks then

Roger Penske has often said that he'd not interested in F1.

I'm pretty sure his grounds are the huge cost involved.

Penske's a rich man, clearly for a reason!

Penske has a lot on his plate as well, plus he is happy with everything he is doing. I could see Andretti, but just to give Marco a shot at it, ohhh wait, he already did that! Just not in F1...

@Raz - what was I going to comment to your comment? Ah yes, I am not sure who released that PW interview, it was not USF1. But even when he does his grid walk before the races, he seems hyper and disorganized. Of course the grid is a crazy place, so I always thought it was just the whole atmosphere and not him. But recently thanks to the internet, I have seen other channels doing their grid walks, and they are really organized in comparison.

While I applaud PW for following his dreams, he needs to leave the actual PR of the team up to the professionals. Ken I am still up in the air on, I really do not know him outside of hearing his name in the past with other teams. I think Ken just got his hopes up that signing the Concorde agreement would have been sooner, and that threw off his schedule for the team. It did for all teams really, but some did not have to build the facility out. It was a risk, USF1 could have built everything out and waited for an entry, and then have lost everything if they did not get the grid spot (well sell the stuff back at a loss).

They should have changed their plans, gone with the xtrac gearbox, etc.

Edit: More news from Lopez - http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81533

Actually Penske was quoted in Autosport about five-six years ago in a conversation to Ecclestone, saying he'd enter a car if F1 could keep the costs down to $80M.

By the way, the posts on this thread sounds like a gathering of mincing gossip mongers. Yer all a bunch of girls. (Even the girls). Does anyone recall how much testing STR did in '07? Zero. Took them one season to turn their team around. Does anyone on this thread have one quote, one fact, one source piece to suggest
USF1 will not be on the grid? Anything other than speculative assumptions, parking lot pictures and disfavorable comparisons to Flavio Briatore?!

There is far more material out there to support the hope that USF1 will be a viable team. A messy team, but a viable one.

P

In my defense, the parking lot picture was a joke! Other than that carry on.

During the 1990's Penske was considering several times a come back to F1 but it never materialized.
Interesting to know is that Ayrton Senna tested a Penske (that had been driven by Emerson Fittipaldi) Indycar in Phoenix in 1992.

Me too but I do really doubt they can make it

I'm not sure that's the way it should work either, problem is that three weeks from Bahrain there's simply no credible
evidence of a USF1 chassis, not even the advertised retro-such with coil-springs, metal wishbones and ball-joints.

I just hope that the Argentinian president didn't give the 8 MUSD to PW all at once...mille diablo!

Raz

He's been quoted more recently than that saying he wouldn't be keen.

By Curt Cavin in the IndyStar.



Easy now. I see this if your first post. Read the forum rules about insults. That includes insulting an entire group!



Hang on, and who designed the 2007 STR?

Not STR!

I know some are just bashing for the sake of it, but I think the evidence that people are going on is no launch date, no second driver, no testing dates, no passed crash tests and no confirmation of cars being ready for Bahrain which is just 4 weeks away. Or is this a common position for F1 teams to be in 4 weeks prior to the first GP? STR in 07 is incomparable. They were already an established team (formerly Minardi) and they were given a car that was based on a design already raced and developed by the well funded Red Bull team.

The only other team in a similar situation to USF1 now is Campos and they are known to be financially up the creek at the moment although at least they have a car ready. In contrast you have no solid evidence that USF1 will definetly be on the grid Bahrain just "material out there to support the hope that USF1 will be a viable team" which is mainly hot air. Personally I think the odds appear stacked against USF1 making Bahrain, but I'm not rulling them out 100% yet.

In addition to that, look at the teething problems Virgin Racing are having.

They're a pretty well funded operation with smart people onboard with a history of building race cars (Nick Wirth) and racing them (John Booth).

But at Jerez last week they were hampered by breakages and a shortage of parts.

That's cool though, they at least know what the issues are now and have a month to address these.

The way USF1 is looking it'll be sorting these problems in the practice sessions in Bahrain, if they make it at all.

Campos are in the same boat, but at least they have a chassis maker as experienced as Dallara building their racecars.

Just to add something here, similar to something I've added to another thread. Of all the potential new teams, just do a quick google search on them. Virgin racing and Lotus F1 come up with the goods; strong, professional sites with plenty of sponsor logos, news etc. They look like professional outfits. Campos Meta has the beginnings of site, but it seems to have lain dormant for some time; no news, no updates... Stefan GP has a pretty amateurish site which babbles giddily about "Stefan GP makes history", without there being any real news (even their allegedly passing the crash test was an internally funded 'independent' check - nothing to do with the FIA) - no sponsors etc. As for USF1...? Nothing. Nada.

I might suggest that the web-sites very adequately reflect the reality of each of the teams. Virgin racing and Lotus F1 are professional, well planned businesses (no coincidence that they have released their cars to the press and have, or will very shortly, be out testing with the ther teams). Campos had a reasonable business plan, but it seems to have gone horribly wrong somewhere along the line. Stefan GP is simply the wish-fulfilment of a very wealthy man, with no real structure behind it. And USF1 are nowhere.

The USF1 site needs some work, but it is not the worst. Lotus has nice site, not tons of info but really smooth and pretty (granted more info since the car launched). Others have functional sites, but not anything outstanding. They have all improved greatly over the last few years though, that is for sure.

For me, a failing of USF1 is the promise to be so open, offering unrivalled behind the scenes action etc etc.

If anything this has put the heat on so we've been able to observe their distinct lack of progress.

Lotus and Virgin more or less just got on with it.

Oh for goodness sake STR were given a Red Bull copy which is hardly a comparison with starting from scratch sweetie pie......whoops got into my big girls blouse mode

Same here... once you see all the absolute crap that is on the Speed programming schedule, showing the day-to-day build-up of a new American F1 team sounded like a brilliant idea.. and I guess isn't too hard to do either.

A very good summming up, it's enough to browse thru the USF1 website with it's fabricated CVs, pathetic namedroppings and mindless ramblings about this, that and everything but hard facts on the rolling chassis promised long time ago.

Raz

For me it's not how flash the site is more when it was last updated - 25 January! Of on a tangent, I notice USF1's site mentions Dan Gurney's Eagle of the 60's to be the last US built F1 car. What about the Parnelli and Penske cars of the 70's (I know Penske had a UK base in the 80/90's) anyone know if these were these built outside the US?

Having said all the negative things.... I really, really hope that I'm wrong about the team. For the sake of the people that work there, have put so many hours in; for the sake of Lopez, who managed to get a budget together for this... I really hop they turn up with the goods and get to Bahrain.

Yes as a fan of US F1 fan, wait what did I say, my true love is for Ferrari!! What I mean is that as a fan of F1 living in the US, I really miss SpeedVision, because SpeedTV is just horrid. I am glad they at least give us some of the practice sessions, the rest I have to listen to on BBC radio. SpeedTV is nothing but a mix of crap reality shows, and Nascar. We used to get the full 24 hours of LeMans, but now that is broken up as well. It is sad really, and I feel sorry for the diehard fans in the US, and all the good racing that we miss here. I have said before, and I will say it again, watching the racing from my grandmothers house in Holland is amazing. There are forms of racing that the average US racing fan has probably never even heard of, and the racing is fantastic.

There were rumors that they might split into two stations, one to actually cover racing, and the other for reality shows. I have to agree, SpeedTV missed a big deal by not doing more to cover and promote USF1. To Speed it just would have been poor ratings so why bother, but in reality due to the web they could have really driven traffic to their website by posting the videos there as well. If they did a 30-minute show on USF1 every week I would watch it, and I have to say I love their RPM segments. But I think that is more of a Steve thing over anything someone at Speed dreamed up.

I thought once Chad was on board, that he would have driven the team to have a better website. But right now it looks like something I would make in my spare time. For example here is my website: http://www.talryyngames.com and I sorely need to work on it actually, darn you internet forums!!! Maybe I should volunteer my spare time to create a website for them..

Same, I'd like to see them on the grid.

F1 need new blood.

Lopez (and the Argentinian state!) must be convinced, otherwise there's no way they'd tip in so much cash.

As for the staff size of USF1, how many people are actually employed there?

I thought it was a handful of fulltime staff, and lots of outside contractors?

That is more crap, the Eagle T1G was designed by Brit Len Terry, the Weslake V-12 was designed by another Brit,
Aubrey Woods, and built in England. The Formula one team, Anglo American racers, was of course based in the UK.
Parent company however, All American Racers, was based in Santa Ana, CA.

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

I think they were built in the US but were a modification of the March 751

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/...ctory-for-sale/

oppse

Not good news.

http://www.charlottecpe.com/propertyView.cfm?PID=21321

Old news already, for those who read the thread, lol..

US F1 don't own the building, they're tenants, and it will be sold with them staying in place:

I have this horrible feeling that the failure of the USF1 project will alienate the USA even more.

So as Saward says, they're either in deep shit, or they're moving to Europe, which makes they're subcontracting in Charlotte model redundant, or moving in with one of their sub-contractors.

Not good.

Why would you move out months after investing $620,000?