Comments on: USF1? Yeah, We’ll See (and Jake Elder)

By: AlonsoIsTheGreatest

AlonsoIsTheGreatest — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:23:23 +0000

All I know is I’m going to support them 100% is their idea ever makes it to the grid….and I hope it does. And I REALLY hope it doesn’t embarrass our country to the rest of the world racing community, not that I really care what they think, but it would be good for an American team to shake things up in F1. At the age of 22 I’ve been to 36 Nascar races and 4 F1 races and I have to tell you, there is something magical about an F1 race…don’t get me wrong, I love Nascar and watch every race, but I am obsessed with F1 racing. I think (or hope) at the very least this endeavor of theirs will help boost the sports popularity in the US, making it easy for an American based team or driver to succeed in the sport in the future.

See you in Bristol !!!!!!!!!!!!

By: Neon

Neon — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:20:01 +0000

Kelly-Big difference between being a race engineer or a team manager (ie Anderson and Glover) vs the team principle in F1.
Budget caps can only control so much. Rest assured McLaren, Ferrari, BMW, Renault can find ways to spend on hp that USF1 will struggle to keep up. As I said before, if F1 does go spec (hopefully not) USF1 will have as good a shot at some results as anyone. People will soon realize that F1 already spec series in GP2, so the pinnacle status disappears along w/ fans.
Not sure about “Kelly’s” comment toward Journo on Toro Rosso win. What is your point Kelly?

By: Journo

Journo — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:00:14 +0000

Kelly- By answering questions about potential drivers, they are in fact throwing names around. All it takes is a simple “we haven’t gotten that far yet.” It is buzz for the sake of buzz and nothing else. As far as their experience goes I did acknowledge that and praised their competence and capability. I don’t claim to know how to run an F1 team, but I have been in and around motorsports for long enough to know a little bit about how these things get going.

By: kelly

kelly — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:46:04 +0000

The FIA is going to institute a $100M budget cap next year, which what USF1 is counting on.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73455

“This whole throwing around names thing turns me off too. What is the point of throwing around names if you have not even contacted them? I could start up a team and say I was considering a big name driver to drive the car, but that doesn’t mean it is going to happen. It is artificial buzz (though I guess it worked because here I am talking about it).”

Have you actually read or seen any of the coverage? Ken and Peter haven’t suggested any names they are simply answering questions about potential US drivers.

“Red Bull spent $165 million on their F1 effort and they ran in the back.”

Toro Rosso which is the sister team of Red Bull won a race last year. Being a NASCAR writer, you probably don’t understand the significance of winning races.

This is all over and above the fact that Ken and Peter have previously run F1 teams. They probably know a little more than most blog writers about what it will take to start a team.

By: Lester Grimes

Lester Grimes — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:04:37 +0000

Assuming they can raise at least 65 million dollars, USF1 has a real good chance to become a reality.

In terms of reduced budgets, the winds of change have finally arrived at F1. The withdrawal of Honda, along with recent economic downturns on a global scale, has inevitably forced all F1 teams to face reality. It finally took them so long to realize these astronomical budgets were not sustainable at all.

The $65 million budget, along with various cost cutting measures has been negotiated with all F1 teams and the FIA within the past couple of months. The real question is whether or not it can become a reality.

Sure, 65 million bucks is still a lot of bucks to run an F1 team. But this is F1 we’re talking about: The so-called pinnacle of racing technology. In relative terms, it’s pretty minuscule compared to the whopping 100+ million budgets of yesteryear.

By: Richard in N.C.

Richard in N.C. — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:35:22 +0000

Yes it would appear that USF1 is a long-shot, but their proposed budget is the target the head of FIA has suggested for 2010 and published reports indicate that all of F1 have gotten religion as far as cost-cutting. Reports are they have wrung about 30% out of the F1 budgets for 2009. If they do really have Bernie E. on their side I would not count them out. It would appear that Honda’s pulling out might have scared FIA and F1 to death.

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:53:53 +0000

There’s got to be no possible way they can get an F1 team off the ground for that price. The cars themselves should probably run in the range of what they quote the whole operation costing. And if they don’t spend that much on the cars alone, then they probably won’t ever make a field. Of course, if they luck sack into a race, they will probably be 10 seconds off the pace. There’s just no possible way $65 million will buy you speed in F1.

I’ve pretty much felt that this hype is all just hype and there’s literally never going to be a US-based F1 team–at least not with these players involved. Since they started “throwing names out there” it felt more like they were hoping that said driver would have a sponsor to bring their way. It was their way of hoping to catch a big named fish with a bigger named sponsor to lure then into starting the team. I never got the impression that, at any point in time, these guys had contacted any drivers or had any possible way of bringing them on board without said driver bringing a big, 7-figure sponsor of some sort.

By: Neon

Neon — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:04:36 +0000

Being a F1 pretty passionate F1 fan, as well as NASCAR, I fully realize the order of magnitude to fund a team in that arena in the current format. It’s way out there comparitively speaking. I believe USF1 is hedging there bet on a changing climate in F1. The series has always been about each team/manufacturer building there own chassis to compete in the most technologically advanced series on the planet. Now that the ALMS (American LeMans Series) has that disclaimer, F1 looks to become more “spec-like” (COTish if you will). To a degree, USF1 could compete under that format, but not the current.
The other option may be one huge sponsor that will fund the lions share of the cost above and beyond the $65 Mil that we’re not hearing about. Remeber now, Ferrari didn’t pay Schumacher a salary, that was up to Marlboro to fund his Tiger Wood’s topping annual driving duty check of $50 mil.
Now I’m all about having a qualified top notch female driver in any series, but I sure hope Motorola is not bankrolling USF1 efforts to guarantee Danica Patrick a slot. Just wondering!

By: Zieke

Zieke — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:16:24 +0000

I think Windsor is just blowing smoke to see if he can attract more sponsorship money. I’m sure he knows what it will take, and he obviously does’nt have it, otherwise we would be hearing the details and the real planning. As for Speed, we all know they will promote anything or anyone to improve ratings etc.