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Nick_L

By Nick_L
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LowCostMonkey

LowCostMonkey

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In attempt to bring this to a halt, I shall post this very interesting and very eye opening piece from autosport.

USF1 looked pretty shagged now.

US F1 insider: Hurley can save team

By Dieter Rencken and Jonathan Noble Tuesday, February 23rd 2010, 21:23 GMT

Team US F1 backer Chad Hurley is the man who has the best chance of saving the outfit from its current troubles, claims a senior staff member at the American operation.

With the team's car development plans weeks behind schedule, while it bids to try and skip the opening four races, there are mounting fears that the outfit could lose its place on the grid entirely if matters are not turned around.

A senior member of the US F1 operation, who wishes to remain anonymous, thinks that it is Hurley - and not team co-founders Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor - who must now move to turn things around.

Speculation in recent weeks has suggested that Hurley himself is making moves independently of Windsor and Anderson to secure the team's future - either through a link-up with Campos, Dallara or Stefan Grand Prix.

Speaking to AUTOSPORT on condition of anonymity, the US F1 staff member said: "We feel Hurley and Parris Mullins [adviser to Hurley] have our best interest [at heart] and also feel Hurley has no intention of abandoning us even though the media has said he's gone with Campos.

"With all this talk about where US F1 is at, it's been missed that there are 60+ people who have had to suffer through this for the last two months. All of us left jobs and many of us travelled cross-country for this opportunity.

"But having said that, throughout the turmoil, the team has really come together and we're all committed to the project; precious few have left in spite of the uncertainty of whether we'll be paid this Friday. I've never seen such dedication. The US can field a F1 team, in fact easily so after what I've seen." [Errr, really??? - Richard]

The staff member says Hurley became aware of the troubles the team is in earlier this year when he toured the Charlotte facility on January 15.

He also claims that personnel were enticed to the team on promises that funding was in place for three years - but says a series of delays in the design process were a catalyst for its failure to get out on track.

"Going back to early December, it was pretty evident that something was up, in as much as we kept expecting a big push in production starting some time in mid-December, but it never materialised," continued the staff member.

"Figure [that] we're all pretty experienced in various aspects of car design and build, and we all know what it takes from a time-line standpoint. So when it became apparent the drawing office wasn't releasing drawings at the rate we expected, it started to become clear we could be in trouble.

"All engineering decisions were having to be funneled through [Ken] Anderson before anything could be signed off. And that's where the hold up was.

"Tooling for the tub was completed in early December, but then it sat for nearly a month before the laminate schedules for the outer skin were approved.

"Now Anderson himself wasn't designing the laminate schedule, but he was in the wings... as early as last October the production manager was collared about the lack of resources, but the managers were put off by saying: 'Well, Ken has a plan'.

"The irony of all this is that there has been precious little in the way of formal planning and documentation. No production schedules, simply very little in the way of planning."

He added: "Our January 15 pay cheque was late. It was paid by the 20th or so, but it certainly caused commotion and people started asking questions.

"That's when all the company's issues came to a head, and the conclusion was... yes, we had been lied to about the long-term budget, and indeed the company had a cash flow issue. But as mentioned, that really was a secondary issue.

"Think of it this way, ignoring the fact that we were lied to about the budget, if you don't have a car or can't show serious progress in that direction, potential sponsors aren't going to have a tendency to give you money.

"At the moment there are still 60 people working in Charlotte, but 10 have already left."

The delays in the design process are also claimed to have played their part in the sponsorship troubles - and limited Windsor's ability to help.

"Having failed to put out a car, sponsorship money didn't materialise," continued the staff member. "That wasn't for Windsor's lack of trying.

"I do know that Windsor was told of our progress on a number of occasions off the record in informal settings, but it took a very contentious shop meeting in late January/early February for him to twig [that] indeed we had an issue.

"In a meeting between the employees, Windsor and Anderson, Windsor put the question up to the employees: 'Who here doesn't think we'll make Bahrain?' I think Windsor might have meant it somewhat rhetorically, but he was answered nonetheless, and 100 per cent of the staff raised their hands. He was visibly shocked."

When contacted about the claims from the senior staff member, team principal Anderson declined to respond to the specifics - but did suggest the comments painted a biased picture of the situation at the team.

"The story that the employee tells is certainly twisted and one-sided," said Anderson. "There are also contradictions. Everybody that signed up here knew exactly what they were getting into, i.e. to have two cars on the track in Bahrain.

"Given the late start due to the FIA/FOTA situation of 2009, I asked everybody to keep the car simple, strong and reliable. The comment that the chassis moulds sat for a month while waiting for a lay-up schedule is exactly the sort of thing that hurt us. Way too complex and time consuming. I did question why it was so complex if it was not necessary.

"I don't want to retaliate point by point as they are entitled to their opinion."

Windsor himself said he would continue to work hard to help keep US F1 alive.

"I have given this project - and will continue to give - all the love and passion I have ever had for our sport," he said. "Some obstacles I won't be able to overcome but I'm not giving up."

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RFT

RFT

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Lotus on +6 seconds... Fuel weights or not, ouch!

Williams were second, but since it's Hulkenberg, I presume they're running light... Regardless, I wonder how good that Cosworth engine is...

The opinion I've read in a couple of places is that the Cosworth has good power, but it's thirsty.

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gone fishin

gone fishin

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All this fuss about Stefan, Campos and USF1 seems like a storm in a teacup (or a mountain out of a molehill).

Surely we all know that whoever, out of the above, actually makes it to Bahrain (or the 5th GP, if they allow it) will almost definitely go in the way of Super Aguri by the end of the season.

If Lotus are 6 seconds off the pace, exactly what chance do these guys stand? A few of the posters have pointed out, the FIA really fucked up in selecting who should win those additional places. Yeah, they needed to start looking for new blood as the chances of some of the big manufacturers pulling out were very, very high.. but they should have gone with teams that had either a) some kind of racing history and/or B) had the financial clout to actually enter. Who actually does this background check? Mosley has stated that there were rigorous checks... but really, they couldn't have been that good. What a shambles.

Ferrari are pissed off because they were hoping that the manufacturers would pull out .... AND there wouldn't be any other additional cars on the grid- meaning that they could justify the argument of having 3 cars. And Ferrari being Ferrari, they would be one of the few teams that could afford that. In fact, they'd just prefer it if it were 26 Ferraris on the grid... -_-

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mexos

mexos

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Anyone who thought the new teams were going to come in & be 1-2 secs off the pace were deluding themselves. It's a HUGE ask for a startup to build and run an F1 in the modern era without the financial clout of manufacturer backing.

F1 is waaay more professional now & the lower teams are a lot sharper, making it all the more difficult for the new boys. Having plodders limping round at the back 6-10 secs off the pace has been the norm since I started watching F1 25 years ago - a norm that has only recently been rewritten. (go back to the 80's/90's you had cars being lapped after 10 odd laps!) Plus with established teams downsizing & shedding staff the new teams are chock full of proven F1 talent. If the teams survive the first few years there's no reason why any of them can't go on to attain Force India levels of respectability.

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mexos

mexos

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Could you really class force india as a new team? it's the old Jordan setup that's passed through more owners than I care to mention

[/quote

No, not at all. I meant that they could eventually get up to the sort of performance level displayed by Force India - ie respectable - in with the occasional shout of a point.

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gone fishin

gone fishin

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Posted
Could you really class force india as a new team? it's the old Jordan setup that's passed through more owners than I care to mention

Yeah, the only new teams are Lotus, Virgin, USF1 and Campos- all of the other teams have basically just changed names- the newest team is Red Bull (having come from Stewart in the 90s).

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Dudley

Dudley

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Yeah, the only new teams are Lotus, Virgin, USF1 and Campos- all of the other teams have basically just changed names- the newest team is Red Bull (having come from Stewart in the 90s).

For what it's worth, since I'm bored. Let's go old to new.

1950 - Scuderia Ferrari (In "Grand Prix" before that, since 1929 as a team).

1966 - McLaren (Founded 1963)

1978 - Williams (Founded 1977)*

1985 - Renault F1 (Team founded in 1977 as Toleman (1981-1985) then Benetton (1986 - 2001) then Renault (2002-). Renault ran a separate works F1 team from 1977-1985)

1985 - Toro Rosso (Team founded in 1979 as Minardi and run under that name in F1 1985-2005)

1991 - Force India (Jordan 1991 - 2005, Midland 2006, Spyker 2007, Force India 2008-. Jordan founded as a team - mid-1980s)

1993 - Sauber (as BMW Sauber between 2006 and 2009. Team founded 1970)

1997 - Red Bull (as Stewart 1997-1999, Jaguar 2000-2004, Red Bull 2005-. Team is technically a continuation of Paul Stewart Racing, founded 1988)

1999 - Mercedes (as BAR 1999 - 2005, Honda 2006 - 2008, Brawn 2009. Mercedes ran a separate works F1 team in 1954-1955) +

2010 - Virgin Racing (Formed 1990 as Manor Motorsport, although the Virgin entry is a joint venture with Wirth research, also responsible for the Simtek team in 1994-1995)

2010 - Lotus Racing (confusing birth but is related to both Lotus Cars - founded 1952 and the Litespeed F3 team (2004). Not related to the old F1 outfit "Team Lotus" (1958-1994, founded 1954) although Lotus Cars and Team Lotus were related until 1990.)

2010 - Campos Meta 1 (New team but Campos ran lower formula cars from 1998-2008. The team now runs in GP2 as "Addax")

2010 - USF1 (New team. Key members worked for Williams and Ferrari amongst others. Peter Windsor was in the car during the accident which left Frank Williams in a wheelchair).

* Technically Mercedes is a continuation of Tyrrell (1968 - 1998 - team founded 1958) but while they took the entry they didn't really take on anything else of Tyrrell in the way that the other transitions covered do so I haven't counted them.

+ Frank Williams ran another F1 team (Frank Williams Racing cars) from 1969-1976 before selling to Walter Wolf but the current team (Williams Grand Prix Engineering is completely separate).

Wow, I WAS bored. Hope that helps someone. Incidentally if we do see "Stefan Grand Prix" this year, they are a continuation of Toyota (2002-2009) who were set up as a new team but have affiliation to "Toyota Team Europe" who ran the successful world rally program for Toyota.

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