WhiteBlue wrote:I have checked it and signature was 31. July. That gave them August, September, October, November and half of December to do their work. In my book that is four and a half months.
They still had over a year to scout for credible finance and get a credible operation up and running, and plan and cost ahead - as explained over and over again. No, you can't just type one up when you sign the Concorde agreement. That's not dependant on getting a 2010 entry. That's called getting a business plan in place. That's the hit you take for actually being a prepared and professional outfit.
Lotus managed it. Virgin managed it. They had even tighter dealines in place in many ways. Lotus already had a factory and backing in place when they really got rolling for 2010. Virgin had Manor.
You can't simply rely on scamming people with a 2010 F1 entry, which is all USF1 have done. You have to be a credible organisation overall without it. You can't build a factory and build a car all from scratch in a few months - even with really accurate and professional planning. Everybody here said that was insane and wasn't going to happen. Even if you had the experienced people there was far too much work there. Whatever way you cut this, it's still incompetence.
The point is?
By mid December they were already under attack.
segedunum wrote:The difference with Virgin and Lotus is twofold. They both have rich shareholders who are seriously committed which Hurley obviously isn't.
Actually, Virgin is putting in nothing but their marketing and brand. Why are you trying to blame Hurley again? This is somewhat bordering on a mental disease now. No. The way this works is that you get the right people (Manor had a lot of experience, Lotus quickly identified Mike Gascoyne and even Campos got Dallara in), you identify what you need, you plan, you cost and you find the right backers and tell them what you need. Once you have that in place then the backers and the money comes more readily to you. That's Peter Windsor's job, and he got exactly the wrong person in Ken Anderson.
You're under a very bizarre impression that you can create a tin-put outfit with no experience, no resources and little practical expertise and then throw your arms up in the air and blame the investor when finance isn't forthcoming - at the last minute no less, weeks before a new season. Rubbish.
They also had organizational nuclei to start with. Nick Wirth's company was practically ready to design and build a car they only had to add the travelling racing team. Same with Lotus.
Yer. You have to make sure you have something before you even start and that you're credible. It's far too complex an operation to get running, and that's all part of the incompetence. Before they signed the Concorde agreement USF1 didn't even have an office with a phone in it. What they should have done was allied themselves with an existing operation, but that didn't enter Windsor's head and it was used as a big ego trip for Ken.
Even Dallara have a car designed and ready for Campos, and Campos have big finance, organisational and infrastructure issues. This crying over "Oh, they only had a few months and Bernie spoilt it all!" is total an utter nonsense and an excuse so bad it isn't even funny.
I don't like the way you avoid a debate based on facts. My power of comprehension isn't a point of debate. We are talking of USF1 and the causes for their failure here.
First there was denial that they were going to fail, as a great many had pointed out here (and that's been nicely painted over), and people are trying to blame anything but the incompetence of the people who started the whole sorry mess - namely PW and KA.