USF1 -- F1's All-American Challenger

[xpensive]

Surely this is as serious as when Dan Gurney and Phil Hill vowed to enter F1 with their own team a couple of years ago.

I wrote that cute little irony, one in a long line, on February 4th, 2009, thread lasted almost a year. Cheers.

[WhiteBlue]

Some of the more spectacular claims by our honorable members here make no sense at all.

It was all a scam from the begin:

Not very credible considering that one of the founders had a good job in F1 which he now lost as a consequence of going live with the USF1 company. There are easier ways to defraud money than founding an F1 team under the noses of 80 employees, hundreds of journalists, dozends of suppliers and your own finance director who provided the kick off funds.

There was no shortage of money:

Probably true in a sense that the money would have been ok in terms of budget. But very little of the money actually materialised in cash when needed. For instance only 10% of the Lopez sponsorship has ever reached USF1. The desaster was probably caused by incompetent financial management. Start ups eat cash up front like crazy. You need rock solid credit lines and professional cash flow management to escape that classical stumbling block of all start ups.

Anderson is just not capable to run an F1 project:

Very unliklely considering that he convinced several experts like "Racecar Engineerin". It is much more likely that he underestimated the rigidity of the F1 time plans and over estimated his own capability to manage things hands on. Given more time and no liquidity crisis the project may have worked out with 9 or 8 months instead of the 7 months it had. Probably a successful project would have required Anderson to hire an F1 engineering professional as project manager who had done this kind of thing before like Gascoyne at Lotus.

Those are just some of the reasons why those extreme claims are not credible. To me they don't seem to be helpful to explain what has been and is going on in Charlotte.

[GTO]

I am astounded by the lack of leadership displayed by Anderson & Windsor throughout this whole fiasco. [-X
Good Riddance! I didn't want this soap opera of a distraction during the season.
Let's shift our focus to the real F1 teams & the new young teams that managed their finances well enough to launch their teams & make it for pre-season testing. =D>

[xpensive]

...

Anderson is just not capable to run an F1 project:
...

No WB, he's most definetly not, as little as he was 20 years ago;

Ex-Formel 1-Pilot Stefan Johansson, ein Kenner der US-Rennszene, hatte mir schon im August letzten Jahres erzählt: “Vergiss den Anderson. Der ist ein Traumtänzer. Redet viel, nichts dahinter. Nur leider merken das viele Leute zu spät.” Man hätte auf den Schweden hören sollen.

I trust Auto Motor und Sport and Stefan Johansson, who was actually there when he tried it 20 years ago!

[WhiteBlue]

Some of the more spectacular claims by our honorable members here make no sense at all.
Anderson is just not capable to run an F1 project:
...

No WB, he's most definetly not, as little as he was 20 years ago;

Ex-Formel 1-Pilot Stefan Johansson, ein Kenner der US-Rennszene, hatte mir schon im August letzten Jahres erzählt: “Vergiss den Anderson. Der ist ein Traumtänzer. Redet viel, nichts dahinter. Nur leider merken das viele Leute zu spät.” Man hätte auf den Schweden hören sollen.

I trust Auto Motor und Sport and Stefan Johansson, who was actually there when he tried it 20 years ago!

I trust AMuS's Michael Schmidt in many issues but I don't think he knows much about engineering project management. If I were in a situation like Ken Anderson I would have hired a European project manager specialist to compliment my own capabilities in the field. Ken knew nothing about typical time lines of recent F1 projects with similar short execution time. My assumption from February last year when USF1 came out was that they were to hire such a person. Sauber and BMW certainly did that. You don't allways have to have it all in yourself, but you need to know your limitations and find the resources to compensate. This is what I meant when I said Ken could do it. With the proper help of course.

[countersteer]

Autosport is reporting that the staff has been put on unpaid leave...

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81819

[xpensive]

Did you pick up on what Auto Motor und Sport said, WB?

"...Man hätte auf den Schweden hören sollen."

If I die tonight, I go a happy man!

[Giblet]

All aboard!!

[nacho]

I would assume that not selling the entry if there was a chance might in fact be illegal? I mean the laws telling business owners working at the best interest of the company.

When they file for bankruptcy their creditors will be pretty angry IF they had the chance to sell their entry as their last opportunity to make money and did not do it.

[axle]

Shame... the idea was a fine one. I wish they had made it.

I hope the FIA, FOTA and FOM still allow us to have 13 teams for 2010 via StefanGP as despite the team...I just want to see the TF110 run!

[Pandamasque]

So soon? This is sad. I was kinda ho ping tung to see their parting gift - the toaster prototype. Yet again they failed to live up to their promises.

[bill shoe]

In a rational world USF1 would sell the entry to Stefan. USF1 has refused to sell. My initial assumption was that USF1 had bad negotiating skills, was irrational, or was just plain spiteful.

However, there is a scenario where not selling the entry makes a kind of financial sense to USF1. Assume Stefan has offered $5 million for the USF1 entry. Next assume USF1 has net outstanding liabilities of $10 million (due to money contractually owed to Cosworth, to their landlord, to pay drivers as refunds, etc.). Therefore, if Andersen-Hurley sell the entry to Stefan then the USF1 business corporation will still have a net liability and the team owners will receive no personal profit from the entry sale. They only have a personal financial incentive to sell the entry if the Stefan offer is higher than all the accumulated USF1 obligations. Those obligations are pretty big right now...

I'm not a bankruptcy expert, but I know US law is weaker than English law regarding the responsibilities of managers of failing firms to act in a way that minimizes loss and harm.

And I'm assuming Andersen is familiar with US bankruptcy law.

[simplefan]

In a rational world USF1 would sell the entry to Stefan. USF1 has refused to sell. My initial assumption was that USF1 had bad negotiating skills, was irrational, or was just plain spiteful.

However, there is a scenario where not selling the entry makes a kind of financial sense to USF1. Assume Stefan has offered $5 million for the USF1 entry. Next assume USF1 has net outstanding liabilities of $10 million (due to money contractually owed to Cosworth, to their landlord, to pay drivers as refunds, etc.). Therefore, if Andersen-Hurley sell the entry to Stefan then the USF1 business corporation will still have a net liability and the team owners will receive no personal profit from the entry sale. They only have a personal financial incentive to sell the entry if the Stefan offer is higher than all the accumulated USF1 obligations. Those obligations are pretty big right now...

I'm not a bankruptcy expert, but I know US law is weaker than English law regarding the responsibilities of managers of failing firms to act in a way that minimizes loss and harm.

And I'm assuming Andersen is familiar with US bankruptcy law.

If you sell a business (entry) doesn't the buyer assume all aspects of the business including it's liabilities. Remember they cannot sell the entry it belongs to the FIA but they can sell the business that currently holds the entry meaning they would assume it's debts. Not a win for Stefan

[donskar]

From autosport.com:

Anderson has insisted that the Charlotte-based operation remains hopeful of making it onto the grid in 2011.

He is adamant that the team has not closed down, and says it now awaiting news from the FIA about if it can defer its entry from the start of this season until the beginning of 2011.

[Ray]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3cIrdzwZO4[/youtube]


OUCH