http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/sports/a...ng/18autos.html

OMG CompositeKen's post has made it into the New York Times.

I would not believe none a bit, until USF1 themselves wave their white flag above their head.


On my side notes, I am questioning the amount of funding that Chad put in, and rumored commitment by Penske ...

Certainly it is not good for them to let the boat just sink. They need to recollect their bits if they can.


On my second side notes, i will be bursting if I hear the voice of Peter Windsor during the TV interview this year.

...

DFV, wise up, please.
Stop digging yourself into a deeper hole.

Many of the people who did stuff at USF1 would seem to have been part-timers, 'contractors' and the like.
They "worked there" but weren't full-time staff. One example was the guy who edited (!) the videos. His day-job is at SpeedTV.

I've no idea whether CompositeKen would have been a part or full time staffer, or an employee of a supplier deputed to work on-site at USF1.
I don't see that as an important distinction. It barely matters who he is/was now.
However I strongly doubt that CK would have been the owner of a supply "partner" company.
CK bitched about how KA was a known credit risk. And the "shocks" that hadn't been paid for and therefore not delivered.
But it was the payroll that seemed personal.
And what CK wanted most of all was to be believed that things were not quite as Windsor was saying.
So he went public.


I think Steiner is someone Hurley has come across through USF1, and trusts. Maybe he blew the whistle privately to Hurley. Or expressed doubts early on. Whatever, it seems he had a line to Hurley, and Hurley found him credible -- he had no need to go public like CompositeKen. A specialist outside consultant to look at technical parts of any proposals - which 'due diligence' Hurley seems to have skipped when backing PW and KA. Let the salesman set up the commercial side of the deals, but have the tech guy there to cut through any BS.

The speed version of "tears in his eyes" had the new-to-me rumour that Hurley might now be considering investing in an established team, rather than Campos. I guess Toro Rosso and Sauber would be the likeliest candidates.

From Will Buxton's blog today (mostly about the Campos - Kolles situation):

http://willthef1journo.wordpress.com/

And what CK said is now being reported in respectable media like the NYTimes.

Like they are known for checking facts! lol Well actually it looks like they actually did some work here, kudos I must now admit and eat crow. Our newspapers are not all that great anymore for the most part.

This is all such a mess really, a really weird mess.

we’re hearing he hasn’t paid Toyota for their car yet and as such all of those goodies could be back up for sale soon as well.



USF1 on Toyota ... So True ...

Yes but the REALLY INTERESTING BIT was this

That's the first official "No Comment" rather than bull.

Something has cracked.

Excellent that a proper journalist seems to have asked the challenging questions.
Even if he didn't get an answer.

Honestly folks, I've always credited CK with likely being legit. His wording, the topics he chose to discuss, his picking away at the management structure...as I've said before, it all sounded just like the chats I heard around me when I was contracted with a dying company. That sort of thing is hard to fake unless the would-be troll had first hand experience with being on the inside of failed projects which, of course, is possible. The unanswered question I have is why CK chose to come here and rant, though I suppose there could be a million and one not even necessarily logical reasons. Maybe he (or she) was already a member under a different name who was angry and wanted to vent. It could be CK just arrived at this forum when it came up as a result of a Google search and decided to start talking and found it cathartic. Or, maybe CK is pure hoax and just got lucky with guesswork, in which case this saga gets even crazier.

I'm another one who's gullible (frightening so, at times) but something has obviously been off at USF1 headquarters for a while now. How off I guess we'll be finding out soon.

If you google CompositeKen you will see that he did this in the comments section on other websites as well as forums, but some of the posts he made were not as carefully worded. Leading me to believe he was not fully who he said he was. But anyone after seeing this post could have posted with the name of CompositeKen hence the difference.

But I'm not arguing if he was an employee or contractor. It was Slowinfastout that ridiculed me for stating that Steiner would be good for the team and then HE claimed he already was at the team. I was then merely replying that I didn't consider a supplier to be a team member (implying that in my first post I would consider that Steiner would be an asset to the team in the everyday running - not just as a supplier of composite products to the team).

However, there is no point arguing anymore

Seems twitter is bouncing around the NYtimes article now, let's see how this gets translated in the other media outlets.

Ridiculous that USF1 tweets the NYT article instead of making an update of their own.



WTF is that? They are not a blog, they are THE FREAKING TEAM IN QUESTION!!!!!

That is a fan, not the actual team. http://twitter.com/usf1team

Errr, no. It's not the official USF1 Twitter.

This one is:

http://twitter.com/USF1Team

What's the other category under "Manufacturing Partners" on the USF1 website? http://www.usgpe.com/partners.html

Why the hell to you take the liberty to label USF1's own stuff differently while expecting of me to stick to perfect strict definition of each f*cking word I type? Seriously lol?

I may not be as eloquent as wdh, but why are you being a ridiculous grammar nazi and what not?



There, he's got it. It's not so damn complicated.

BTW I respect his opinion on the thing, just as I would with yours if it made any sense.


cooling down now..


getting there..



happy again...

That explains a lot of things.

Thanks

You could have explained, in your second reply to me, that you didn't mean a member of the team in the way that I understood it but rather that you meant that he already was involved with the team as a supplier/manufacturing partner. Instead you continued to argue how he was supposed to be considered a member of the team (a member is different from a partner - this is the whole point of having different words for different meanings).

Maybe I misunderstood you and maybe you have misunderstood me, but you started by ridiculing me in your first and second reply to my post that supported your comments about Steiner. That got me annoyed. Why ridicule me when I was trying to be nice and give you some backing

Has this been posted yet: http://www.ultimavuelta.com.ar/noticias.ph...les&id=3637

Saying the meeting today was to form CampUSF1 - but it conflicts yet again with other reports from today, but makes sense with what we knew yesterday!

Anytime, it's what I am here for, I think?

Do you get what I meant now at least?

Just want to be sure otherwise you're likely to pull of the same stunt again.

I understand now that you meant that Steiner has a role with the team in some capacity, be it supplier/advisor/etc.

And it was you who pulled off the stunt by ridiculing my posts instead of explaining your real meaning (as I have done above in one sentence).

Talryyn thath website is property of Felipe McGouhg

I didn't want to ridicule you... it's that sometimes out of nowhere you elect to stick to some strict definition of a word you have in mind, then you singlehandedly switch the argument to be about this, and not about the core issue at hand... then we waste pages and pages of arguing back and forth about this stupid word while I'm frustratingly trying to get back to the real issue.

Anyway, sorry if I offended you, let's move on.

(btw it's not 'supplier', it's 'Manufacturing Partner'... hihihi.... USF1 calls their suppliers: 'supply partners'! not that it makes a single difference about what the point originally was!)

I should be called an insider too. That article from ultimavuelta.com.ar that was just posted states that the goal of the meeting was to accomplish the same exact thing that I posted on the previous page that they should do.

Poll is going to make 50/50 pretty soon, it's 373:360 now.

Thanks for the apology

My frustration is that I feel that you sometimes makes statements that you won't explain or answer when questioned. My problem is that I am in an environment where words are important (obviously words are important everywhere) and where it's very important which words you use to desribe something and that words have a important role in communication (especially written communication). This is something that I guess I take with me and sometimes I see that I might get a bit anal about it... Sorry about that.

Anyway, I have moved from being a cautious optimist to being a cautious pessimist

I think it's now very unlikely (still using diplomatic language here ) that we will see the USF1 team with it's own cars in Bahrain (or that we will see the USF1 team at all). Maybe Campos and USF1 will merge and use the Dallara cars in 2010.

The GPUpdate website is now reporting that USF1 could miss the entire season:

http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/formula-1-news/2...ip-2010-season/

http://adamcooperf1.com/2010/02/17/the-end...-road-for-usf1/

This is interesting at the end regarding missing testing and safety implications.

What will tomorrow bring? Everyday is a rollercoaster for these three teams.

I think Hurley and Lopez (and Gunther Steiner) have jumped ships, they've gone away from USF1 trying to make it work with the Dallara cars, and some Campos team people like Jose Ramon Carabante... with the possible addition of Geoff Willis, Collin Kolles, etc...

USF1 are toast IMO, I no longer think it's a merger.

One of the rumors was that Hurley might buy the Campos team. If that is true (speculation), wouldn't the new team be American?

Who the hell is Will Buxton?

Why do people quote some journo who believes a huge company like VW/Audi (the largest car manufactgurer) would even be interested in a small cottage cheese factory like Campos (who don't even have the proper facilities to design and manufacture an F1 car by themselves)?

I still wonder, what would happen to them if the FIA said ok you can miss the first three races. We want your cars safe, and on the grid. Well that is only an extra month, so not sure if that would solve the money issues with both teams, and the car issues with USF1. When was the last time a team missed a race, was it when Paul was with Minardi?

Why do so many sites still wrongly say YouTube are a "partner, investor, whatever" when it's Hurley and not them? Whenever I see that I tend to just ignore whatever that site might have to say if they can't even get that part of the picture right.

PW is Australian right? So that makes USF1 part Aussie? There is plenty of American based companies already sponsoring F1 teams, I always think of the team as where they are based not who owns or sponsors them. But I guess you can do like Lotus and certify that you are from Malaysia. (Or whatever the proper terminology is)

Possibly Windsor is still trying to salvage this... but it kinda goes against the reports of him telling Pechito that it's over..

I can't see it personally.. IMO they're done... I can't see a use for Windsor, Anderson and the stuff in Charlotte with the new rumored Hurley plan.. and I certainly don't see USF1 making it on their own with the huge blow they've taken if the new Hurley plan is real and he is gone.

Does BAR in 2005 counts?

Windsor is British.

Not without a major sponsor like an Apple or Microsoft. Plus if Hurley is really gone, he will seek damages from the team to recover what he can ($45 million USD was his portion?), he could take all that sweet equipment that we see in the photos, I would love some of that stuff in my garage for making furniture (yes oddly I do play around with making furniture, so that should qualify me to be an F1 designer right?). If that equipment is leased than that is another story, but the way the team has talked they own it. Have to watch for an auction on the equipment!

it would just have a american invester

on midweek motorsport they had marshal pruett on, from what i remmber of the bit on usf1 was essentialy they got "seed" money quite easily, BUT they couldnt get sponsership going, and the seed money was probably running out in december..

there was rumours of a car testing at barber on the 25th i think... during the lunch break for the IRL series :x

Well... this is exactly why I railed on him for posting what he did (as an alleged employee).

I don't care about Peter Windsor. Don't feel sorry for him at all.

I didn't think USF1 would make it, unfortunately, that's starting to look like it's going to be the case.

I feel bad for the people who worked their asses off in the hope that they could make the dream come true.

I still stand by every single comment I made about CompositeKen, on the basis that he is who he says he is.

What an astronomically pathetic situation.

err.. wat?

Apple or Microsoft? where did you get that from? You just made that up didn't you?

Hurley surely won't seek damages either.. he gambled and lost... he funded entrepreneurs who weren't up to the task and the thing fell flat on it's face... it remains to be see if some unpaid suppliers or partners would create a fuss but I doubt it.. plus maybe Anderson can arrange something with Stefanovic, the FIA and Bernie for the entry... there's scope to satisfy a couple of unhappy people if the team falls completely on its face.

I believe more like $20 mil and I don't like his chances.

I agree. It's what made me question PW comment that they would be in Bahrain but "not be pretty". It sounded like a bad idea to show up with a team who had never run an F1 weekend, let alone their car.

No sorry, I meant Apple and MS have the money and would also be viable for marketing exposure worldwide. So if I ran a team in the US, I would be courting them. I am not saying in anyway that MS or Apple are even thinking about it. But Apple would be great iCarF1 enters the sport! lol

MS is already on the Peugeot anyway with Xbox Live branding.

I agree, something could be sold, but who wants a smallish factory based in the US. An Indycar team or another Nascar team is all I can imagine, but that building has been empty for sometime, last vacated by a Nascar team. I could see an auction for the equipment though.

If only USF1 would have made this a reality show, and each week we got to watch Dr. Warren yelling at CompositeKen to get stuff in the Autoclave in time. And then at the last minute they get the car on the trailer still dripping in paint to head off to Bahrain. Meanwhile JML is sewing on his sponsor patches while on the flight over. It could have been aired on both US and UK networks, based on what those other reality shows get it could have possibly funded the team. But again I am slightly nuts lately!

Slightly? EBBOM.

Just watching Anderson Jr playing WoW 24/7 while leading the design team on a webcam would have been entertaining!

Please like he could get past lvl 10...or figure out what all those icons do.