USF1 -- F1's All-American Challenger

[Belatti]

Noooooooooooooo!!!!

The autoclave, the empty white interiors building, the CF tub, some "random" Al machined pieces...

Thw weird thing is they actually finished a car. Although they never raced it.

[xpensive]

Noooooooooooooo!!!!

The autoclave, the empty white interiors building, the CF tub, some "random" Al machined pieces...

Thw weird thing is they actually finished a car. Although they never raced it.

Legend has it they never got an engine for it, wonder why?

[WhiteBlue]

No official comment from FIA ?

Do we have to wait until after the first race for it to be officially called quits ?

There is an official communication by the FiA saying USF1 will not race in 2010 and will not be replaced in 2010 either. It also says empty slots will be addressed by a new round of licensing opening in some weeks. So USF1's application for a delayed entry in 2011 is effectively rejected. If they want to continue they will have to start from scratch like any other team with their 2011 application. Anderson did not cover that option in his last exclusive interview to Autosport. One has to wait and see if Hurley is keen to try again with a different USF1 approach or tries to jump to another team.

[godlameroso]

I imagine the design would be slightly simpler for 2011 seeing as how there will be no double diffuser wonder what the cars will look like...

[bill shoe]

Hahahaha its very funny how the 2nd post (by Donskar) is already profetic about lack of sponsorship and how xpensive starts the bashing at arround 5th or 6th post, in the first page

If you enter Andersons consultant-site, http://www.andesign.us, check the images under "Projects" and "Falcon Indy car",
don't they look strangely familiar to you as well, Belatti?

Looking at the Andesign link to the Falcon Indycar project leaves me puzzled.

The Falcon never ran, but it looks (as others have mentioned) that it was close to being a running car. There was a complete tub. There was a finished bellhousing. There was finished suspension. Plug in the spec engine and transmission, add wiring and plumbing and the thing would run. Am I missing something? Also, the pictures make it clear the Falcon project actually had money for a functioning wind tunnel model and testing.

This is overall odd for two reasons.

First, if the Falcon project had so much sunk cost and just needed a spec engine and transmission to go on track, why wouldn't anyone pay for this last incremental cost? Second, if Andersen could create an essentially finished Indycar a few years ago then why so much difficulty getting anywhere near that close with the F1 project?

I don't have answers, but I'll admit that once I stop beating the dead horse of USF1 failure there are actually interesting questions lying around. And no, I'm not implying anything, I basically just don't know.

OK, back to beat-the-dead-horse mode: Perhaps the Andesign "Projects" page should include a new link to a carbon-fiber toaster project.

[pipex]

bill, I was thinking along the same lines... why they didn't finish that car?
another option could have been to buy an old F1 design. I think that KA was too ambitious with this thing, what was he thinking? that he could mix with the big boys from the start?

[Gatecrasher]

No official comment from FIA ?

Do we have to wait until after the first race for it to be officially called quits ?

There is an official communication by the FiA saying USF1 will not race in 2010 and will not be replaced in 2010 either. It also says empty slots will be addressed by a new round of licensing opening in some weeks. So USF1's application for a delayed entry in 2011 is effectively rejected. If they want to continue they will have to start from scratch like any other team with their 2011 application. Anderson did not cover that option in his last exclusive interview to Autosport. One has to wait and see if Hurley is keen to try again with a different USF1 approach or tries to jump to another team.

OK so now it is "official" who is going to write the book so that we will get all of the real insider scoop as to how bad this really was...

[countersteer]

OK so now it is "official" who is going to write the book so that we will get all of the real insider scoop as to how bad this really was...

Xpensive wants to write it... He's already written most of this thread.

[xpensive]

...
Looking at the Andesign link to the Falcon Indycar project leaves me puzzled.

The Falcon never ran, but it looks (as others have mentioned) that it was close to being a running car. There was a complete tub. There was a finished bellhousing. There was finished suspension. Plug in the spec engine and transmission, add wiring and plumbing and the thing would run. Am I missing something? Also, the pictures make it clear the Falcon project actually had money for a functioning wind tunnel model and testing.
...

I think Anderson's web-site xplains a few things, first of all it's rather obvious that "USF1" was just "Falcon MkII".
Secondly, the man is not a finisher, if you look at those images, the Falcon was just a tad more complete than USF1,
with suspension parts attached to the tub, we have no idea wether it was anyting inside or just an empty shell?

As Stefan Johansson described him in August last year; "Forget Anderson. He is a dreamer. Talks a lot, nothing behind it. Unfortunately, many people notice it too late."

They were working together at Ligier, Onyx and Bettenhausen some twenty years ago.

[Roger the knife]

I know it was sort of agreed to stop this, but with the WMSC announcement that

"With regard to the USF1 team’s non-participation in the 2010 championship, the World Council mandated the FIA President, in full compliance with the new code of practice for disciplinary matters, to take forward the most appropriate action."

curious to know what they can do to something that no longer exists... maybe KA will be in line for some F1 community service, or PW on litter duty...

[bill shoe]

There is a great story about USF1 at racefax.com. The piece has a good overall perspective on the situation.

Here's to hoping the three new teams are still here at the end of this season and beyond. They look good so far. The Hispania mechanics are heroes.

[ESPImperium]

I know it was sort of agreed to stop this, but with the WMSC announcement that

"With regard to the USF1 team’s non-participation in the 2010 championship, the World Council mandated the FIA President, in full compliance with the new code of practice for disciplinary matters, to take forward the most appropriate action."

curious to know what they can do to something that no longer exists... maybe KA will be in line for some F1 community service, or PW on litter duty...

Posibly KA and PW are in line for a ban from ever owning or being involved with a F1 team, or any team in FIA approved and or run motersport catogories.

One word of mouth story i hear was that there was a couple of parties looking at buying what was built of the Type 1-01 to put it all together and either make a mock up or a full racing car of what the Type 1 would have been. Highly doubt it myself tho.

[manchild]

2,718px × 580px (scaled)

[meves]

I know this is really flogging a dead horse, actually probably more of a rotting carcass by now but, here is a good article on how they kept the press believing even when there was no hope.

http://www.automobilemag.com/features/r ... index.html

Honestly I'll lay it to rest now...

[segedunum]

I'm sorry to say that anyone who believed this was a bona fide idiot unfortunately and needs to be wary about being taken in in the future. The interviews, shots of their equipment, shots of their supposed factory........it was all wrong. I don't doubt they had some talented people who could have made something happen, but weren't allowed to, but there was enough there to suggest this was a joke. I mean listen to this 100% bullshit interview with Peter Windsor where he rambles on about 'skunkworks' development:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-52-F2rWZ0A

What the hell? Seriously. How can klaxons not go off after that?

This is backed up by the article:

"On February 18, several weeks after we went to press, I spoke again with Windsor. During a rambling, emotional interview, he launched into a self-pitying diatribe berating me for my accusatory tone (!!!). He also insisted that all wasn't yet lost at US F1, and he told me that I might be hearing from him the following week with some surprisingly good news about the team. Alas, I never heard from Windsor again."

However the article does repeat several complete falsehoods - the Windhear nonsense for a start.

Whoever tries this again, if ever, needs to have a long chat with Roger Penske, or it needs to be Roger Penske. Penske was on the verge of establishing itself quite well in Formula One when they realised they simply couldn't manage two bases between the US and Europe. The same is true today. That whole split between building the cars in the US and assembling and prepping them in a shop in Spain is pure fantasy and could never have worked had they got that far. I mean hell, Peter Windsor hadn't even moved to the US. What does that tell you?