USF1 -- F1's All-American Challenger

[nacho]

Let's hope it's that way, I've enjoyed their videos this pre-season very much.

[WhiteBlue]

Ingram: The Race Is On At USF1
Jonathan Ingram | Senior Writer, RacinToday.com Wednesday, 20 January 2010

Huntersville, N.C. – Will USF1 make it to the grid in Bahrain at the Formula One season opener on March 14?

A walk through the team’s shops as a guest of PR rep Dan Passe just seven weeks before the first session in Bahrain does not necessarily answer that question. The team’s first carbon fiber tub is in place on a chassis plate with a mock-up Cosworth engine and a gearbox casing. But it’s being used to lay out the plumbing and electricals. It’s also been used for publicity photos (yet to be released) of visiting drivers (yet to be officially named).

The team members, some of them recently hired, are working flat out in all departments, especially in the composite shop. The man in charge of composites, Kevin Bialas, is composed and relaxed. But his staff has a backlog of layup work to do. The undertray, meanwhile, has been farmed out to nearby Crawford Composites and its larger autoclave.

Crucial pieces of the suspension and gearbox are done – but await more pieces required for final assembly. So the computer-aided machine shop continues to churn out lightweight, high-strength parts.

A glance at a full-scale, side-view drawing reveals a compact car despite the large fuel cell needed to accommodate races without pit stops. The gearbox, to be built in-house, will be transverse for the sake of packaging. But the crucial details of the front and rear wings cannot be discerned, either in the drawing or anywhere else in the shop.

One gets the feeling that these workers, many of whom have been in similar pre-season situations before, probably recognize a seven-day work week is not far away. But like Bialas, they all seem to be composed and cautiously optimistic about meeting the deadlines necessary to get to the nearby full-scale Windshear tunnel, then a first test at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama and to the FIA group testing in Spain by the end of February. On the other hand, the mandated FIA crash tests are not yet complete.

Fans have by now figured out how to handle this extraordinary scenario. They are dialing up USF1’s official Facebook site, where scenes from this undertaking are being posted regularly. The postings are the early stages of a massive mosaic on how it gets done in F1. It’s a unique, open-ended and unabashedly American way of introducing a new team. There are photos, words (via team member blogs) and special interviews by the American voice of F1, Bob Varsha.

But has US F1 bitten off more than it can chew as a start-up by building its own car from scratch in a building that was empty in July, starting with nothing more than computational fluid dynamics?

I’d have asked Ken Anderson – but he was moving from station to station, immersed in soon-to-be-final details. He looked neither harried, nor preoccupied. But in the words of F1’s business boss Bernie Ecclestone, who apparently has noticed that the final crash testing is not quite complete, there is an air of drama.

I’d have asked recently appointed team manager John Anderson, but his offices are just being finished and he was not in the building. Peter Windsor, the sporting director, was away on business as well, likely working on getting drivers into the final details of contracts.

Extrapolating from a previous visit in November and looking forward to Bahrain, there’s no telling how this experiment is going to turn out in the short run. But these guys have already come a long way and I wouldn’t bet against them. There’s another shoe yet to drop as well – how fast is the car going to go as a result of what is reckoned to be a slightly different approach to this year’s rules?

At least the long run has come into focus. There will be an American team in F1. It is possible to keep costs in check and build an F1 car. The first appearance of the Type 1, as it has been designated, will be an historic occasion and hardly bereft of anticipation.

– Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jingram@racintoday.com

I keep my fingers crossed. Worst case they will miss a race which is apparently now allowed to happen three times for new teams in the first season.

[Richard]

I keep my fingers crossed. Worst case they will miss a race which is apparently now allowed to happen three times for new teams in the first season.

Thanks for posting the Ingram article. I think there was a link earlier on in this thread, that visit was probably around the new year, roughly the time the tub pic was released.

Where do you get the thing about missing three races from? The concorde agreement is dependent on every team attending every race. Previously teams have been booted out for missing one race (arrows ?).

[zgred]

Where do you get the thing about missing three races from? The concorde agreement is dependent on every team attending every race. Previously teams have been booted out for missing one race (arrows ?).

STEFAN GP BREATHING DOWN CAMPOS’ NECK

(...)
Meanwhile it appears that the proposal for new teams to be allowed to have three ‘no-shows’ at Grands Prix has now been agreed. It appears that these can be taken at any time so it is theoretically possible for a new team to miss the first three races of the season an start at Shanghai on April 18th.

[Pup]

Motorsport-Total says they've heard from "several independent sources" that USF1 has made a deal with Dalara to buy the Campos chassis out from under them, which is why Stephan is suddenly so confident about getting a spot.

What a bizarre tale this is.

http://www.motorsport-total.com/f1/news ... 20220.html

[RJC_pt]

http://murphythebear.com/blog/index.php/2010/02/02/720/

[xpensive]

Well, there goes my dream about an F1 retro-car with coil-springs, Alu-wishbones and a homemade gearbox, I guess.

But a USF1 with an Italian-built chassis and two South-American drivers, get out of here, in the dead zone perhaps?

[The FOZ]

http://murphythebear.com/blog/index.php/2010/02/02/720/

I've never before seen this website.

The USF1 bit is a complete mess...seems like a mashup of every bad rumor about them from the past month.

And the Toyota gas pedal bit...just...weak.

[WhiteBlue]

Mixing up Serbs and Russians is classic. The Bear should have his head examined. If USF1 are in financial difficulties to pay Cosworth how would they be able to pay Dallara? Makes no sense at all to buy a chassis for a couple of races if you are within weeks to launch your own.

[Pup]

I liked the pedal joke.

WB, I think the undertone of these stories is that Bernie might be pulling some strings - and perhaps paying some bills - if only to keep Teixeira out of F1.

And perhaps Hurley wouldn't mind unloading this particular headache onto some old man who says he'd like to get back in the game.

[Pandamasque]

http://murphythebear.com/blog/index.php/2010/02/02/720/

If Bernie can’t get USF1 onto the grid, he might be stuck with the Russians, who’ve grabbed the rights to the ex-Toyota chassis

WTF? The bear should get out of his lair more often. A highly questionable source.

[xpensive]

...But now I have another reason to support USF1: if they do well, I will be able to laugh in Xpensives face!

Tell you what Gaucho, when there's a credible picture of an F1 car designed and built in Charlotte and a date confirmed
for testing in Alabama, I will fly there to see the miracle for myself.

And if you can be there with a Nomex-suit, I will eat it with "Grits" when they shatter the lap-record!

For the record, this commitment does not apply if USF1 shows up with an Italian- or German-built chassis.

[WhiteBlue]

WB, I think the undertone of these stories is that Bernie might be pulling some strings - and perhaps paying some bills - if only to keep Teixeira out of F1.

I just fail to see the sense in the whole story. USF1 are generally capable of building a car and their finance has never been mentioned by Bernie, only technical. So with the 3 race dispense they should be out of trouble.

Keeping Teixeira out should not be a big issue with his debt all over the world. He will need an FIA license and renaming the team at one stage to serve his sponsors. Each of those actions will not work out without consent from Todt, Bernie and FOTA.

The crunch apparently is about Campos but that will run some more weeks until he has used up his free parking chips. Then one of the people eager to run a team will step in at cut price and buy the assets. No big deal for F1. They will have 12 teams on the grid which is more than they had last years.

What is really mysterious to me is why ProDrive failed to pick up the deal that Stefan did with Toyota. A ProDrive badged Toyboat would set sail at a drop of the hat and the Campos saga could get burried quickly.

[xpensive]

I think David Richards has had quite enough of having the fate his investments decided upon by FIA politics.

MrE is trying to make the best of the mess, USF1 is probably nowhere and he has promised so many cars, that's all.

[Pup]

Well, like I say, it's a bizarre tale.

But something tells me there's some truth in here somewhere. I think WB's wrong about Teixeira. Bernie can't keep him from coming in as a partner to an existing team, and he has no say over what they put on the side of their cars should he do so. And Bernie also wants Stephan on the grid. Lord, I don't know why, but it should be obvious to all that he does. The logistics of them officially getting a spot, however, are a bit murky to me.

No, I don't think Bernie gives a flip for USF1 or Windsor. But if they can be useful to him, well that's another story. So how much can a couple of chassis cost from Dalara? Would Bernie chip in a few million to screw Campos out of their chassis, whether USF1 needs them or not? And if he gets a slice of USF1 in the process, flips Senna into the team, and then sells it again to some other schmo for a profit? I don't know, but it sure sounds like a Bernie sort of deal, doesn't it?

And I don't know anything about this Bear guy. To me, he's just backing up the MT story. But I wouldn't be too hard on him for mixing up the Russians and Serbs. There's a sizable group of people here who still think of east Berlin as "Russian".