If the rumours that were flying around at the time (certainly that I heard) are true, it's likely all these teams got an entry rather than Prodrive etc because they committed to using the Cosworth.........all the new teams are using Cosworth.....the FIA would look pretty stupid if Cosworth were brought back into F1 for a cheap engine/drivetrain deal, only to have 0 or maybe 1 team use it.

I can ask him some questions in game, you guys can prepare some questions

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20100217/F...6#ixzz0fq7uL7xt

Interesting, at least we are seeing some news closer to the actual factory.

Wow.. and look at this reply on the article:

Sure do. Rencken this morning on the subscriber site. Parts finished, tested, not assembled. No engine fit up, not ready for gearbox. In fact as far as we know no engines in possession. Which means, not plumbed, no electrical. That's where they were a month ago when that document circulated Dallara (he quotes the document as well). Apparently they stopped working on it. That jibes with reports from about a month ago that they were behind in payments and stopped working on it.

At this point there are three teams, two with entries and one car with two in various stages of completion. The Toyota is the only one that's going to see a track in a few weeks. Apparently, StephanGP haven't yet paid for them. If Campos or USF1 (or on the off chance they merge) buy the Toyota, that's what they run this season. That means both the Dallara and the Type 1 either scuttled or parked for the year and perhaps used in 2011. Either way, lots of money down the drain. Someone is going to have to pay Dallara either through a deal or Campos forking over the bucks.

Over here we have an electronic filing system for Federal court cases which include bankruptcy. Nothing so far from USF1. If they announce they've gone tits up, they'll likely file for Chapter 7.

Yes sadly I have heard that even if Campos gets the funding, they will have a hard time making the grid. Could that be why Hurley bowed out of the supposed deal with Campos, he found out neither USF1 or Campos can get to the track on time, both would need three races off? Speculation on my part..

Based on rumors I have read.

Wonder how much Toyota wants? It is looking dim for all three teams at this point.

Official News From Pechito:
(They don mention about windsor tears
http://www.pechitolopez.com.ar/nota.php?idn=90
Bad translation by me and Google
Taking into account the amount of information dumped on the participation of Jose Maria Lopez pilot in Formula 1 in the 2010 season is reported in yesterday Jose Maria Lopez (father) with Felipe Mc Gough and Victor Rosso visited the headquarters of USF1 in Charlotte, USA, to make contact with team officials.
At that meeting several issues were touched to know in depth the state of affairs of the new team of Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson.

After the meeting with a certain idea of the current state of the U.S. team last night set out for London, England.

In London, several meetings were generated, one with executives of the FOM (Formula One Management) who presides Bernie Ecclestone. The result of these was positive and expected for a similar agenda on Thursday to today.

Lopez (p), Mc Gough and Rosso are scheduled to return to our country next weekend.

When they refer for our country the are talking of Argentina, Victor Rosso is the team Manager From Honda TC2000 from about ten year Team and actually owner of that team (The same history between Honda and Ross Brown) also he is the one who made the first step with the international return of pechito. Perhaps he go with McGghoug as tecnical Advisor to see if USF1 will have a car some day.

Hurley isn't a racer. The whole walk away from USF1 because he loves racing to invest in Campos is unsubstantiated rumor mongering. I think he's looking for ways to salvage his investment knowing that a stable F1 entry will have value down the road. I think Anderson would be willing the play ball and basically hock the entry to Hurley to save whatever they have to be able to flip it next season. I don't see Campos doing that.

Hurley has been to one race and is not known in the racing world. Very doubtful that he would be looking to ditch the 20 mil he already invested and invest at least that much more in a team that's really not in that much better shape than USF1 if at all. Merger? Perhaps but I don't see him walking away from the 20 mil so easily. Were I a betting man I'd say the Saturday meeting is the "OK we're done" meeting.

Thath guy is not an insider of F1 Team, just a fan. He is the autor of this video, the less hilarious one. (i laugh a lot with the oficials of USF1)
Declan Videos

You still haven't read what the article I posted this morning to counter some of your misconceptions about Hurley, haven't you?



http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/formu...F1-hurley_N.htm

While that doesn't make him a racer, it's better than some F1 team owners... IMO the 'rumors' are not to be dismissed and Hurley is gone from USF1 already...

Chad Hurley made it clear that for him F1 was about business opportunities, and in that regard he made the mistake of believing that Windsor and Anderson were worthy partners to enter this weird universe. To me the recent developments and rumors look like Ecclestone might have been talking to that guy, and is trying to guide him on his next move (away from USF1)

He might call it quits, but IMO whatever happens the investment in Charlotte is mostly lost... on the other end, he might be seen as a facilitator for some of Bernie's ideas to still have 13 teams in the Championship... and for that there would be something in it for him... you can bet your arse on Ecclestone being more convincing than those amateurs.. (PW & KA)

http://twitter.com/adamcooperf1/status/9256322540

I wonder if Red Bull wants two or three more teams?

I do not know what Red Bull wants, but as an F1 fan I do not want more awful liveries on the grid. Two are more than enough.

What if they use Saubers old blue paint scheme? That was such a pretty car.

Edit: The poll is within 10 of being even.

Slow from memory when Hurley first came on board he had never been to or watched an F1 race. They sold him on the idea of a team based in the states taking on the world in the scary European championship.

I'm sure he's devoted a lot of time to the sport since getting involved, but will he be content suddenly ditching the whole American angle to the entry? Not so sure.

Just some fodder for fun. The building is for sale, Hurley can afford it, he can also afford the equipment sitting inside it. Even though the team has a lease, the building is actually a good price. Biggest issue is no 2011 entry to race, so why try and build further. I could see him doing it if a 2011 entry was for sure granted to the team. Campos would be an interesting merger to get the logistics of the base in Europe, plus a racing operation compared to the factory in the US. However, you could wonder if it would be cheaper to just follow through with the Motorland base and build that out.

The employees that moved to the US would be keen on keeping their jobs I am sure, and with the management that Hurley has surrounding himself, I would be more comfortable staying in place to work for him over the other two.

If he buys Campos let's say, can Dallara be ready, or if they are, can the team be ready to assemble everything in time. There is question that even if Campos got the funding, he might still struggle to make the grid.

Should the FIA say ok, we were wrong, it says you can miss three races would that change anything. Lots of interesting things to think about, but time is really short. Give me a 2011 entry and I think things would be golden for example.

arrgh... I'll post it for the third time lol, make sure you don't read it!

One-on-one with US F1's Internet whiz Chad Hurley

Hurley himself contradicts everything you just said... note the date on the article as well..

From what I understand he sat through their power point presentation around March/April 2009. At which point he had not had any experience at all with the sport. This interview is from after the 2009 season.

That's not impossible, but the whole american/patriotic requirement seems to have been bunk for the most part. Especially now with the rumors of him running Dallaras with Senna and Lopez or possibly buying into another team, which in turn are rubbished by some with the seemingly false american/patriotic requirement as a reason given.

Pechito has a countdown clock, hell does he have a better website than the USF1, you know that new media team that is supposedly showing others how it's done.

http://www.corsaonline.com.ar/2010/02/17/N...dio-la-cara.php

If you're going to link to a foreign-language article, it generally helps if you provide a translation as well.

I wouldn't pay attention to that, the info is from last month - as they also state.

I don't think patriotism has anything to do with it, it's about a different business angle. As for your reference to the USA Today piece where Hurley stated he had attended "a few" races, the first one (and only one I knew he attended) was the 2009 British GP when there was the break away threat. For the sake of argument let's say "a few" means three races. Three races and he's ready to flush 20 mil and spend another 20? He keeps a low profile, signs with USF1 in August. Around Dec when there start to be rumors of things shitting the bed at USF1, he hangs out for almost three months, watching them flounder only to jump in at the last minute, write off a $20 mil investment with USF1 (that unless he tries to salvage something will be gone) only to invest in a team, of a guy he doesn't know that also has no car and no F1 experience. Really? We've heard Dallara needs 8 mil Euro to pay it off. No engine either and the 2.5 mil figure is stuck in my head, don't know if that's euro or dollar. Let's be charitable and say dollars. We're at almost US$14 mil and we haven't turned a wheel and don't know how much equipment Campos will need. And that doesn't count what to do next year with no design manufacturing capability in house. What is his end game? What is the exit strategy? He's not an impulsive person. He's meticulous and calculating. Although he's got the resources to do just that, why at this stage? Why would he wait until his one fledgling team was down for the count to move to another fledgling team that at this point isn't in any better shape. Neither have cars, both only one driver (though USF1 likely doesn't have even one now) and unless he is able to buy them the Toyotas they won't be on the grid in Bahrain. Perhaps the Dallaras could be built and shaken down in about 3 weeks time but that's another big bill to foot and they better start right now. Those cars need to be presented for tech 3 weeks from tomorrow (or today your time). It will be a monumental effort if either one of them make it.

I respectfully disagree with you. It was NOT an all-American team before - actually anything but - and therefore it cannot be an all-American failure now.

Oh please. Varsha did stick up for his friend and his friend exchanged the favor....in his own way...

In due time, my friend. In due time

not from last month:

For all you guys questioning what value there is in creating a new team for investors like hurley and Stefanovic, Wurz had a short insightful interview back in December last year (remember he was in the FIA application with the Superfund project, so he knows what he is talking about).

(German Source).

"It's only about perseverance for the new teams. They can look like the biggest clowns early on. If you manage to stay a few years in F1, through the budget cap and the TV money you will automatically get to earn - and then all of a sudden you've created an incredible value. You are part of something very, very elitist. All you need to do is survive."

Zoran Stefanovic for example makes his money with military projects. He is quite used to spending double digits millions and develop something for years before he can get his money back (then tenfold). Maybe he is really set to wait 3 years until his team becomes profitable. Remember, he stated he would test all 2010 long if he can not get into racing, sounds like a long term plan...

I'm curious how Stefanovic will even test when Bridgestone won't even give him GP2 tires.

Since the amount of money Chad Hurley is out keeps coming up I decided to throw together some rough numbers, trying to estimate how much cash they've gone through. Heres what I cam up with:

Site Renovation- $660,000.00
Onsrud 4-Axis- $200,000.00
VF 5 TR- $150,000.00
VF 4- $75,000.00
VF 4- $64,000.00
VF 2- $50,000.00
VF 2- $50,000.00
3 CNC Lathes- $150,000.00
Autoclave- $250,000.00
CNC Plotter- $35,000.00
Platen- $20,000.00
Downdrafts- $15,000.00
Tooling- $45,000.00
Rotaries- $15,000.00
Compressed Air- $25,000.00
Tools- $65,000.00
Lista Cabinets- $45,000.00
Office- $16,000.00
Computers- $50,000.00
Incidentals/Other- $35,000.00
Sundries- $20,000.00
Forklifts- $30,000.00
Raw Materials- $280,000.00

SubTotal CE --- $2,345,000.00


Coswort DP- $2,440,000.00
FIA Entry- $440,000.00

Labor- $1,286,666.67
Rent 7 months- $280,000.00
Insurance- $70,000.00
Utilities- $49,000.00

Vendors- $130,000.00
Corvid- $40,000.00
Brawn Trucks- $100,000.00
Testing- $12,000.00
Wiring Contractor- $30,000.00
Travel- $20,000.00
Aragon Facility- $200,000.00

TOTAL--- $7,442,666.67


Interesting my estimates for capital equipment adds up to the less than Cosworth DP.

Interesting Numbers i see some of them too litle, like traveling, Computers (20.000 just in some CAD Software License) and labor. Also dont count pechito training, also you have to count the coffes i see a lot there.
Xaus, maybe some team sell some at gold prize, maybe some team with no testing or even without car...

There you go Donka, my guestimate of yesterdays was a million USD per month over the past six, pretty close innit?

Raz

Can anyone confirm that it was the official JML website or just a hoax?

The webpage has now been suspended

This is getting stranger by the minute....

Assuming things have not all been bought on credit......

'Investing' $xm' and actually 'Paying' $xm are two different things. Failed businesses always have a large number of creditors who believed what they were told too.

And I would consider the prices of the CNC stuff to be higher as well. But anyway, good post from Donka.

Sure they run out of bandwith due the unusual amount of visits, probably the site receive more hits today than in all of is history.
Today listen to pechito press secretary said in an interview what is on the site and moreover hinted that in negotiating with camposmeta USF1 is involved.

I really do hope Campos and USF1 just merge and get it over with. They can sell off any redundacies for some change and both Lopez and Senna have drives. And, yeah, that (imo) shady as hell StefanGP can come in and everyone win win, right?

Maybe USF1 will give all of it´s assets to Campos in exchange of pitlane pass for Peter Windsor?

I imagine if they just want to run the thing, Avon's historic F1 tyres would be sufficient, Minardi tested on them when between tyre suppliers once.

made me chuckle!

This situation is becoming a farce. I kind of bought the 'We've been quiet because we have been busy preparing the car' stuff a few months back. Then came the YouTube channel with Bob Varsha walking around an office speaking to people...... I was starting to come around to the idea that they were for real. Now, i just dont understand the radio-silence. If it has all gone tits up, its too late, they are through!

Done! "YES" voters are minority now.

Were there not a total of 750 votes a few minutes earlier? How did two people switch retract their votes?

You didn't notice the way "YES" voters clawed back an even bigger gap a few months ago?

Yes, I noticed. Was it about the same time Varsha did his interviews? After that it stood pretty much 55:45 for quite a long time.

I think it's fairly safe to say the USF1 is dead and buried.

Curiously the team has taken to retweeting all its messages of support.

I wonder why Windsor hasn't talked publically about it yet?

His colleagues like Adam Cooper are already stating the team's demise as hard fact.

This is NOT the official USF1 Twitter:

http://twitter.com/USF1

This IS:

http://twitter.com/USF1Team

At this stage in a company collapse, those in the centre of the storm simply don't have a clue what might happen next.
All the action is off-stage.
I believe meetings in London, Hurley sending people to see and touch the reality of the Dallara, and Charlotte being unable to say anything at all - even to reply to email questions from AutoWeek. They don't know what will happen to them. They have become the playthings of (financial) gods.

For all Bernie's supposed support for Stefan, I can't help wondering if I detect the Hand of Bernie in Bridgestone's refusal to let Stefan have any tyres at all. Its not as though it would be logistically impossible. Its not as though Bridgestone had refused Ferrari access to GP2 tyres to run a recent F1 car privately ... "No tyres for Stefan" is a political/commercial decision.
The effect of that ploy has to be to throw the Toyotas into the pot for the two troubled entrants and Hurley.

Stefan cannot count on the FIA inviting him to join in. (I doubt they think him 'fit and proper' - but they don't officially have that test yet.)
Without tyres, without a 14th team, he is being driven towards the Campos and USF1 entries. Not being cold-shouldered so much as pressured to make a deal.
I'm sure that Hurley will have made direct contact with Bernie.
And Bernie would definitely recognise serious money when he met it.



If USF1 have burned through more than about $10m, there would have to be serious questions as to where the surplus went to.
Especially since a startup ought to be preserving its cash and leasing rather than buying wherever it possibly could.


I would have expected Dallara to have plumbed the cars to dummy engines, just as USF1 were doing.
They'd have to do that to preserve the value of their investment.
Not to make the cars 'ready to roll' (awaiting standard bought-in modules only, like real engines) would be tantamount to Dallara accepting the hit and writing off their out of pocket costs in the project. I wouldn't have expected them to do that.

These things are time-limited. The value of an F1 entry evaporates if you are thrown out for being a no-show.
I'd have thought that Hurley's financial thinking would be to have a going concern, something that had value potential, rather than just a pile of second-hand assets for disposal as scrap.
Hurley of all people should know that a business's value (for sale) is its future potential. The physical asset value sets some sort of floor, but a going concern should be worth much more.
To preserve his investment, he has to keep things going.

Charlotte cannot be officially closed until the Entry has a secure home. That could still be Charlotte, with the Dallara's being run from there -- but that seems ever less likely.
Until the deals are done or the FIA cancels the entry, Charlotte is likely to remain in limbo. Neither dead nor alive. But definitely out of 'the loop'.


Someone should write a book on this.
But I'm afraid that the first one might be Windsor's.

They could skip 2010, has this been touched upon yet here?

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

I bet it was. But 'Skip 2010' in such circumstances translates to 'be out of 2010 forever' in the real world.

I doubt Bernie/FIA and co will keep the spot warm for them. I believe they shouldnt... they had their chance and they blew it. Other outfits should be given a shot