F1 gets a major boost - American team to join the grid next year
28 Feb 2009
With established teams, such as Honda and Super Aguri, still figuring out ways to survive on the F1 circuit, and the sport itself announcing a series of cost-cutting measures to battle the global economic downturn, an all-American team is now set to enter Formula One in 2010.
The proposed USF1 team is the brainchild of Peter Windsor and former F1 designer Ken Anderson, who say they will likely join the grid in less than a year's time.
The USF1 team will be based in North Carolina, the heartland of the NASCAR stock car series.
"When we realized that the technology was here and with the help of the new FIA regulations -- that were made for new teams to come into the sport -- we thought we could do a team here in the United States and that it was going to be a car made in America," Windsor told Speed TV in the United States.
"The logical thing then from a marketing perspective was to see if we can have two American drivers. And that is indeed what we intend to do."
The Speed TV report suggested that the proposed driver line-up may have female Indy Car star Danica Patrick and NASCAR's Kyle Busch.
Also mentioned were Scott Speed and Marco Andretti.
Windsor also confirmed that USF1 had the backing of Formula One owner Bernie Ecclestone.
The development comes at a time when F1 does not have a race in the United States and Canada.
Honda's pull out from the 2009 grid prompted the world governing body, the FIA, to introduce a series of cost reduction measures that will make it cheaper for teams to participate in the world championship. (See: Buyout may save Honda's Formula One team)
For Windsor the downturn is only a challenge: "Long before the current economic recession, we were thinking "lean, mean"," he said.
"We were questioning why the existing F1 teams needed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in not winning races; and we were convinced that not only could an F1 be designed and built in the USA but also that we could base the team in America, too."
The new 2009 F1 season starts in Australia on 29 March.
Meanwhile, troubled bank Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has said it will end its sponsorship of Formula One team Williams as a result of the economic downturn.