A successful NASCAR crossover would create instant interest in F1 within the USA. Like it or not, NASCAR is huge in the USA and F1 is nearly invisible. With a little marketing (USA vs the world) it could be a huge inroads for F1 into the US market. I know Bernie is an arrogant SOB, but I'm surprised he hasn't tried harder to build popularity for his sport in the richest country on the planet.

one driver announced......



US F1 Team announces Jose Maria Lopez as driver for 2010 season

Ken Anderson, Jose Maria Lopez and Peter Windsor

Argentine star to race in US F1’s Debut Campaign

Charlotte, N.C. (Jan. 25, 2010) – US F1 Team announced today that they have signed the former Renault F1 Team test driver, Jose Maria "Pechito" Lopez (26), to race with them in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship. Lopez will be the 24th Argentine* to race in Formula One, sustaining a heritage that began sixty years ago when Juan Manuel Fangio and Froilan "Pepe" Gonzalez took the F1 world by storm.

"Securing 'Pechito' Lopez for our debut season has been a goal of ours for a long time," said US F1 Team Executive Vice President Peter Windsor. "We've been following his career since he dominated the Renault V6 Championship in 2003 and we're thrilled to have him on board as we return America to Formula One. Lopez is a consummate professional and born leader. The most revealing thing about his character was how he handled the disappointment of not racing for Renault after three years of testing with them in F1. Instead of moping around and feeling sorry for himself, he returned to Argentina and totally dominated the local scene, winning 38 races and three championships. He became a major star as a result and, in turn, the Argentine nation – a country where F1 is second only to soccer - has got behind him." As proof of that, Lopez's US F1 contract was officially announced by the President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, in the Casa Rosada (Government House) in Buenos Aires on the afternoon of January 25.

"This is a truly memorable day for me, my family and the people of Argentina," said Lopez, who has more than 6,000 kilometers of F1 test experience. "I have been working towards this day for much of my life and I can't thank Peter and Ken [Anderson] enough for this opportunity. Of course a new F1 team faces many challenges but our goal is to improve with each race and build a foundation that will eventually see this team competing for wins and championships."

After winning in karts all over the world from the age of seven – Lopez was leading Lewis Hamilton in the world final in Japan when his chain broke - he switched to race cars in Europe in 2001 . He won the 2002 Italian Formula Renault Championship with four wins, five poles and three podiums and in European Formula Renault he scored two wins, two poles and a podium. He dominated the European Formula Renault V6 Championship in 2003 (five wins, eight poles, seven podiums) and in one season of F3000 and two in GP2 he scored a win (Barcelona), seven podiums and a pole. As a contracted Renault driver, he also completed thousands of miles in the F1 car, focusing mainly on shake-downs and starts but also completing simulated race distances with compromised set-ups.

Disappointed not be given the opportunity to race in F1, Jose returned to Argentina in 2007. His positive, super-professional approach resulted in three championships, 38 wins and 36 pole positions. As a result, Jose became a hero in his own country and regained the momentum he needed to focus once again on F1.

US F1 Team, which is located in Charlotte, North Carolina, the motorsports capital of the United States, will be the only American-based team on the grid in 2010 and the first in more than 40 years. Team Principal, President and CEO Ken Anderson said finding the right drivers was a major part of forming US F1 Team.

"So many things go into starting a Formula One team from scratch," Anderson said. "You can nail every step along the way but if you don't have the right guys in the seats, everything else is for naught. With Jose Maria Lopez we have further positioned ourselves for a successful 2010 debut campaign."

* Argentina's F1 Heritage – Argentines who have raced in the FIA Formula One World Championship

1) Pablo Birger
2) Roberto Bonomi
3) Clemar Bucci
4) Antonio Creus
5) Jorge Daponte
6) Alejandro De Tomaso
7) Nasif Estefano
8) Juan Manuel Fangio
9) Norberto Fontana
10) Oscar Galvez
11) Jose Froilan Gonzalez
12) Miguel Angel Guerra
13) Jesus Iglesias
14) Oscar Larrauri
15) Onofre Marimon
16) Gaston Mazzacane
17) Carlos Menditeguy
18) Roberto Mieres
19) Carlos Reutemann
20) A. Rodriguez Larreta
21) Adolfo Schwelm Cruz
22) Esteban Tuero
23) Ricardo Zunino

Anyone could have been named the driver really. All you needed was a lot of money to bring to the table. This was reported several weeks ago.

Is it time to accept reality? Put a fork in it.

REPORT: USF1 To Fold, YouTube Founder Out - us f1 - Jalopnik

‘Pechito’ Lopez’ F1 dream in jeopardy*|*Momento 24

That is a real shame.

Here is a quote from Joe Saward blog addressing this issue:

Joe Saward's Grand Prix Blog



February 16, 2010 by joesaward

Today’s story – if there was one – is that Stefan GP is trying to convince everyone that there should be 14 teams in Formula 1. That is not going to happen. It cannot happen, even if Bernie Ecclestone would like to see it. First of all that would set an unhealthy precedent for the FIA at this late stage. It would also require all the teams to agree to let it happen (because the Concorde Agreement bans more teams on the grounds of safety) and one cannot imagine the weaklings being too keen to let in a team with what might be a half-decent (ex-Toyota) car – for the simple reason that this would deprive them of income.

More to the point, however, one needs to ask why Stefan has suddenly changed his tune. The only obvious explanation is that it is fast becoming clear in Belgrade or Cologne that the two stray teams that he had hoped would disappear are not going to dematerialise and will pop up either at the first race, or at some time very shortly after that. The details of how this will happen are not obvious yet, but from what I am hearing both Campos Meta 1 and US F1 will appear, perhaps with different faces (and therefore different money) behind them.

Both teams have entries and the makings of cars. Both teams have got at least one driver with some sponsorship, so this is clearly a very good time for those with cash to be buying into such vulnerable operations. The current owners of the shares are looking failure full in the face and will no doubt settle for less than might have been the case a few months ago. If they say no, they hit the wall and that will be painful.

My guess, therefore, is that we will see USF1 taking on a rather different form. There is already talk that some of the original partners have been “parked” and one can imagine that one of the many wealthy and well-connected folk in the United States will now sweep in and do what is necessary to get the team moving and, by doing so, increase the value of their investment considerably. We might even have a situation where the team could have a full set of Americans in charge and even perhaps an American driver. That would be nice.

There is a certain irony in the fact that the weak teams with new money behind them could (in theory at least) become the owners of all the Stefan GP kit, if that project flops. Toyota will probably not care that much…

Over in Spain there seems to be a rather similar situation, by all accounts. Adrian Campos appears to be on the verge of leaving his name behind him and his partner Jose Ramon Carabante is being tipped to have plans to take over the whole thing, if only to protect his investment. The entrepreneur was linked to a deal with Volkswagen, which was quickly denied by the Germans, but one cannot help but wonder if there might have been some small grain of truth in the idea. Let me explain: if you were Carabante, what would you do? You need money and Spanish companies are not handing it over. You want the team to be seen to be Spanish so the first thing you are going to do is to look for a Spanish driver. There is a lot of talk of 23-year-old rookie Adrian Valles having cash, which (oddly) has been linked to USF1. He is not experienced in F1, although he has tested some F1 cars and won the Superleague Formula last year, which means that he is not completely hopeless.

The other thing Carabante might try is to do is to come up with a deal with the other people in Spain who wanted to be in Formula 1 a few months ago. They have a monstrous great factory with nothing much happening in it: not to mention some decent ex-F1 people and a super new windtunnel. Step into the spotlight Epsilon Euskadi. There was a time when that team thought it had the money to do the job, but the money was dependent on the entry and the entry was dependent on the money and the eggs and the chickens got mixed up… If there is an entry and a car (from Dallara or Toyota), and the original backers are still out there somewhere, they might be a deal to be made.

What else would you do? Spain has one automobile manufacturer which is still in business and one really good automotive brand with a competition history which is defunct – at least in the car world. The first is SEAT, which is owned by Volkswagen (don’t jump to any conclusions just yet) and the other is Hispano Suiza, which no longer makes cars and is now (sadly) a company belonging to a French group called Safran, created by the 2004 merger between the nasally-unpleasant Snecma and Sagem firms (which were basically involved in aviation). Hispano Suiza now builds transmissions for jet engines. If you were the French and someone turned up on your doorstep asking to buy the brand name for use in the automotive world, you might at least listen. It is money for old rope, isn’t it? And you know that Bugatti did a similar deal a few years back. So, to go back to the previous logic, if Stefan GP has no entry but is keen to buy the Dallara chassis to get the Campos entry, it might be an idea for you to go to Toyota and ask if they are interested in selling the Stefan GP package to you for the creation of a Hispano Suiza F1 team. That would be poetic licence, would it not?

Anyway, that is enough “blue sky” theorizing."


Let's hope we see USF1 make it through. The foreign press is pretty pessimistic about Americans racing in F1 etc. Whether American drivers in F1, USF1, or F1 coming back to US circuits, they love to speculate and predict "US" failure :rolleyes:

I'm not much for Twitter, but I have been following them in hopes they address this soon.
USF1 Team (USF1Team) on Twitter

Man. I was really hoping to cheer for them in Motreal. Wearing my Ferarri flag of course.

There is an endless list of global U.S. companies that could step in and back this team with big bucks. I think that is their only chance, but there is no indication of that happening. A Google/Ford car would be nice.

Why would any US company want to be Bernie E's poodle?

Global exposure, and besides at 80, Bernie's days are numbered.

Global US companies already have global exposure, and Bernie's not going to die soon enough.

At&t

USF1? To good to be true....
 

By ADAM COOPER AND MAC MORRISON (AUTOWEEK)

Anderson and Hurley had made a desperate last-ditch effort to save the team by formally requesting that the entry be postponed until 2011. The shutdown was likely prompted by a negative response from the FIA to that request. If there is any tiny glimmer of a future for U.S. F1, it's merely that the team would be able to reapply along with anyone else if there is still a free slot in 2011. If that happens, it seems unlikely that U.S. F1 will receive a second chance if there are other credible bidders. Windsor is thought to have left the team before Tuesday's developments.
:eek:
A source close to Hurley told AW that the wealthy investor sounds as if he has had enough of trying to get involved in F1. The chances of him investing elsewhere appear to be slim, according to the source.

If indeed Tuesday marks the team's ultimate end, Serbian-backed Stefan GP will continue its push to fill U.S. F1's spot on the grid, though the FIA will have the final say as to what happens moving forward. Stefan GP's entry is still possible, but it would at the very least require unanimous agreement of the existing teams.

It seems likely that the FIA will issue two documents within the next day or so: a definitive 2010 entry list, along with a separate statement that either explains why Stefan GP is on it, or confirms that there will be an open spot in 2011 and that an entry-bid process will be launched. Stefan GP, U.S. F1 (if it exists in any form) and others would then be invited to apply."

Read more: U.S. F1 finished, sources say



Looks like they're done, :(

The remaining team members are just waiting for an official announcement from Ken Anderson.....

It was exciting thinking we could field a F1 team :rolleyes:

F1 starts in 2 weeks, I'm sure Bob and David and Steve will help fill in some of the blanks. I hope Windsor returns to work the pits.

The silly season started early this year.

That's too bad, but I still think the testing ban makes it very hard to develop a new car.

Thanks. That was the funniest thing I've read all day. :D

Ferrari's "Horse Whisperer" had this to say:

"The thirteenth team, USF1, appears to have gone into hiding in Charlotte, North Carolina, to the dismay of those like the Argentinian, Lopez, who thought he had found his way into the Formula 1 paddock, (albeit with help from chairwoman Kirchner, according to the rumours) and now has to start all over again. Amazingly, they still have the impudence to claim that everything is hunky-dory under the starry stripy sky.

Next, we have the Serbian vultures. Firstly, they launched themselves into a quixotic legal battle with the FIA, then they picked the bones of Toyota on its death bed. Having got some people on board, around whom there was still a whiff of past scandals, they are now hovering around waiting to replace whoever is first to drop out of the game, possibly with backing from that very same knight in shining armour whom we mentioned earlier.

This is the legacy of the holy war waged by the former FIA president. The cause in question was to allow smaller teams to get into Formula 1. This is the outcome: two teams will limp into the start of the championship, a third is being pushed into the ring by an invisible hand – you can be sure it is not the hand of Adam Smith – and, as for the fourth, well, you would do better to call on Missing Persons to locate it. In the meantime, we have lost two constructors along the way, in the shape of BMW and Toyota, while at Renault, there’s not much left other than the name. Was it all worth it?"

Ian