USF1 Team in 2010

The news about USF1 team is serious and the team would be launched in 2010 – but a lot depends on the cost-cutting and new rules and regulations laid by the FIA, said FIA president Max Mosley.

“They have (approached us). They are serious people but I think they will be the same as everybody else, they need the costs to come down if they want to be competitive,” he said.

The team will be owned by the English F1 veteran Peter Windsor and American Indycar and NASCAR insider Ken Anderson. The team will be based in Charlotte, North Carolina, the head quarters of almost all NASCAR teams. As per their portfolio only American Drivers will be recruited.

US has not had a Formula One race in the country since the scrapping of the Indianapolis Grand Prix.

Godaddy.com has registered the usf1.com domain name – and this might be an indication that whe the team finally gets to racing, their local female racing star, Danica Patrick might be one of the drivers for the USF1 team. The USF1 team has already booked the Windshear wind tunnel in North Carolina for testing.

The USF1 team plans toset itself apart from the rest of the grid by hyping ‘Made in America’ as their USP. So that would mean US-based chassis development, testing, technologies and engines. And American drivers, obviously.

The time for the planned launch for the USF1 team may not seem to be very good as the operational cost for teams are rising and several sponsors and manufacturers are rethinking their commitment towards the extremely expensive sport. And with the global recession showing no signs of vanishing, acquiring funds to launch a new Formula 1 team and run it will not be a task for amateurs. Even after planned budget reductions for the 2009 F1 season, F1 teams are still planning to spend well over $100 million a year.

As far as the fans in North Carolina where the USF1 team would have their home base are concerned, a purely USF1 team would be highly appreciated, especially after the Canadian Gran Prix has been removed from the 2009 F1 calendar and the cancellation of U.S Grand prix after the 2007 F1 race. And as far as F1 money machine is concerned, it’s been their target for long to give the US a spot in the Formula 1 grid, to capitalise on the highly remunerative North America market.

With Honda F1 team up for sale in 2009, it is natural to be skeptical about the idea of USF1 team to start from the scratch considering teams like Honda and Toyota with very large kitties have failed to make a mark in F1. Augmenting the skepticism is the fact that America is not anyway near to the expertise Britain, Italy and Germany possess when it comes to racing at the highest level of motorsport that Formula One is. Speculations had risen last year also that Americans were in talks with Honda after Ken Anderson attended the Montreal race and met with team chiefs Ross Brawn and Nick Fry.

Hans Stuck, who contested Grand Prixs in the 70s and now heads the racing activities of Volkswagen said it would make sense for Anderson and his reported business partner Peter Windsor to now enter talks to take over the Honda outfit. “(Buying) Honda would be better than Toro Rosso, because of the superior infrastructure,” he said.

It would be hard to predict what benefit would a sponsor get for sponsoring a rookie team in to the world of F1 – Americans have generally preferred Indycar and NASCAR over F1 racing.  If we turn the pages of F1 history 9 years back when Toyota established it’s own F1 team in Cologne near Germany, we see a story of a highly funded F1 team not being able to produce results. American drivers also have almost no experience in the F1 arena, so Ken Anderson might reconsider his obstinate decision to hire only American drivers and certain other issues. On the other hand, if he can manage to get US drivers for the USF1 team who can compete at this level, that would be bring in serious sponsor riches.