Yeh good point, if they skip a season after the shambles they potentially have created I doubt they'll be granted a spot again.

looks like PW will be building the rest of the monocoque and car in his living room... baking carbon fibre pieces in his kitchen oven and patching them straight from the oven on the car

Oops!

Apologies!

If they don't show up, they get struck off the list and would have to re-apply when the powers that be decide there is a vacancy.
Anything other than that is just wishful Wind.

That's why its all such a scramble. To preserve the future value of the Entries.

Ok, from what I've read this is clearly not happening. Does that then let Stefan GP in then?
Or is it not as simple as that. Knowing F1, probably not.

From what I've read Stefan are just as questionable as USF1.

I saw a piece yesterday saying SGP hadn't actually stumped up with an cash to Toyota as yet.

The only way Stefan will get the moment USF1 depart is if USF1 sells them their grid entry. If they don't, the entry defaults to the FIA, who are free to do with it as they please. They can either choose not to issue it to anyone, or Stefan can go through the entry selection process - which in this case will simply be an assessment of their team - and be accepted to the grid that way. But they have to pass it first.

Not sounding good either then. Given that Campos sound like they might finally be getting their sh#t together, we could have one empty slot. The other newcomers will be delighted, less competition, more share of the cash.

Which is why I'm so baffled at the whole "Let StefanGP in! Let Campos and USF1 burn!" crowd on these forums. No one seems to really know exactly how this Zoran guy made money, where it comes from, and then plus what you just mentioned that there was that report/rumor that they haven't even paid Toyota for the cars. Then you see him hiring on the F1 rejects/disgraces/people who technically brought the sport into disrepute in the forms of Mike Coughlin and Dave Ryan. And then you have Nakajima, which I guess just came with the cars like a piece of furniture and part of whatever deal Zoran may have with Toyota.

People should keep in mind that just because Toyota is a large corporation doesn't mean they're immune to bad judgment when trying to offload some shit ASAP. Just look at BMW and their Qadbak dealings.

Stefan should be waiting for an voice from FIA that they can race, but at the moment every one is waiting. there is therefore almost no point to discuss about StefanF1.


I kinda like the idea that Stefan call themselves Uncle Stefan's Formula One, in a sense that they make some kinda deal with USF1.


Actually this might roll on till the fourth race.

Why don't Toyota come back then: Heidfeld/Nakajima super team. Yes we can make cars were the throttle position goes to zero when foot is removed from said pedal look Heidfeld is even scoring a top 5, no runaway crashes here

It would be good. If Panasonic pays up (shame they won't get their FOM entitlements presumably :/ ), the cost is hardly excessive for team aspriing to attend the races competently and not to win the title as such, given the large viewership of F1.

Because they don't want to.

Plus, they'd lose a lot of face if they made a comeback after saying they were out. And since they're Japanese, that's not something they would do willingly.

@Xaus and One: Yes, there was a great post on another thread recently about the questions over SGP.

As for the Dallara, who knows if it will even be slightly competitive.

What a Mosley-esque mess.

Credit to Mosley though; He's created at least x4 mobile chicanes and thereby has increased the amount of overtaking during an average race. Genius.

That's a non-issue as far as I'm concerned. As long as they're not something ridiculous like so slow they wouldn't have qualified with the 107% rule in place then it's a-okay with me for their first year.

We haven't even talked drivers for these no hope teams.

Who really wants to harpoon their career being lapped five times a race?

Who is gonna be lapped five times exactly?

Any driver on USF1

Any USF1 driver, if they make the grid with a cobbled together untested car.

Or, potentially, an untested Campos.

Maybe, but they are out of the picture.. (IMHO)

The Dallaras if they make it could be Virgin-like or Lotus-like.. while the ex-Toyota cars could well be quite competitive with anything else on a good day...

Driver ability could be an issue, but then I'm gonna bring out the Kobayashi card for the first time lol (like everyone else does!)

I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem. Sure, established drivers wouldn't want to be in such a situation but there is plenty of adequate ones in lower categories who want to be in F1 no matter what.

Harpoon? What kind of rookie who's life's work/dream/career is to reach F1 would actually turn down an F1 drive? Besides, someone who is truly talented, committed, motivated, and with the right mindset will do wonders with any car and even if the fans don't catch on to any stellar performances I'll bet my rhino that there's always an internal talent scouting game going on in the paddock.

You have to learn how to walk first before you can run.

Jean Louise Moncent said that at the crash test, the USF1 car 'exploded into thousands of pieces'.

I'm presuming that's not good.

Ironically, I found that pretty hilarious...

hmmmm.... It probably doesn't build driver confidence certainly.

I'd love to see video of that

Is it a destructive test though? If so then that is correct and they have confirmed it takes 50 tonnes to crush the car, being an adequate number?

So, did they show up for the (final FIA) crash test or not?

Link?

In many ways a microcosm for the whole USF1 effort. In that it's now in pieces.

USF1, rest in pieces.

Aren't they supposed to do that in a crash these days, though, to absorb some of the kinetic energy released by the collision? I vaguely remember a commentator saying something like that at a recent Canadian GP.

Please excuse me if I'm just being thick

Well apperently yes, all the carbon should "explode" in thousand pieces apart from the tub itself

As you probably saw at Kubicas big shunt in Montreal 07, the whole car was ripped into pieces apart from the tub...

The story yesterday was that USF1 didn't show up for their scheduled crash test.. I believe that was true... so what exactly is being discussed here lol?

Maybe they dropped it on the way to the crash test?

Racecar Engineering on twitter :

we hear that tuesday / weds next week is crunch time for the Stefan/USF1/Campos situation

I think there's a long history of promising young drivers who took the first F1 opportunity available and regretted it forever.

I'm thinking Tommy Byrne, Pedro Chaves, Vincenzo Sospiri, Franck Lagorce etc etc

How many times are they allowed to be crunched exactly?

BTW that poll here has went through some impressive shifts!

Ahh! Where he said "car" he meant "tub". <Adjusts mental image> Got it now

If that's crash test day, then that's literally true.

Have 20 sleeper accounts been created and all clicked 'No'?

Weren't most if not all of them during the 107% rule? Nowadays you're guaranteed to start a grand prix and don't have to go through the tension of pre-qualy.

Any recent examples like 2000+ where a talented driver jumped into the first F1 drive offered to him and utterly failing?

EDIT: And Grosjean is rather debatable.

Is USF1 website alive ?

Apparently not. I can't connect.

Let's hope the site is getting updated ...

Or taken down! Evidence!

^^

Does not appear to be up.. Cannot connect to it.

There would be absolutely no point in taking it down, even if the team was to have folded.. until after an announcement. Webhosting would already have been paid for the month of Feb...

If they are having issues, i doubt highly someone would have thought and put energy into.. OH NO.. We need to take the site down.

Seems odd.. but then again...

No, they were all before the 107% rule. In fact, you could argue that the 107% rule was created to weed folks (er, teams) like them out.

yep, USF1 site's dead just now..