The US F1 team is very likely dead. Rumors of the Formula 1 startup's demise have been circulating for weeks -- fueled by the silence coming out of the team's Charlotte, North Carolina, headquarters as the days ticked down until the 2010 F1 season opener at Bahrain.
Now reports indicate that the team has laid off its remaining employees. Phone calls to US F1's main number in Charlotte have gone unanswered.
Earlier this week, team boss Ken Anderson and investor Chad Hurley petitioned the FIA to defer the US F1 team's entry into F1 until 2011. Today's news suggests that request wasn't warmly received.
In regard to the layoffs, AutoWeek quotes a source close to the team as saying, "Ken Anderson didn't even have the [guts] to do it himself. He had [production manager] David [Skog] do it. But technically, they told everyone that they are on a two-week furlough."
Autosport claims to have later gotten ahold of Anderson, who reportedly offered this: "We are waiting for a reply from the FIA and are working with them. In the meantime, there is nothing for the employees to do, so we have told them to stop working on the current car until we have a decision."
AutoWeek's source, though, suggests the situation is much more dire than that: "US F1 is dead, and it won't come back."
US F1 still doesn't have a car ready and was never able to begin testing as planned at Barber Motorsports Park. The team also lacks a driver now, as Jose Maria Lopez, signed on January 26, has been trying to extricate himself from his contract for at least two weeks in the hopes of driving for another team.
Above: Jose Maria Lopez and US F1 team director, Peter Windsor, on signing day.
sgude says:
04:53 PM, 03/ 2/10
The Euros are already cynical of America as an F1 venue; now they have even more reason to think America isn't a viable spot for the sport. Or at the worst, they'll point to USF1's failure as reason to deny any other American team.
Dang. Why are the guys who could really make an American F1 team happen (Ganassi, Hendrick) in NASCAR? Roger Penske, do something!
subytrojan says:
05:16 PM, 03/ 2/10
Na na na na
Na na na na
Hey hey hey
Good-bye
Frankly, once I read/heard they weren't going to have an American driver piloting their car, I lost much of my interest.
actualsize says:
08:52 PM, 03/ 2/10
At least we can make a good Snuggie.
f1ndler says:
01:19 AM, 03/ 3/10
I was hoping to see USF1 in action during this season but the NASCAR society wasn't trained to make a right turn and shift gears. We put a man on the Moon and we build the best jet fighters in the world but we can't build a propers sports car and train two guys to drive them. How pathetic!
seppoboy says:
06:24 AM, 03/ 3/10
USF1 faced a very daunting task, and I was always skeptical of their chances in the absence of confirmed, secure, exceptionally generous financing. There is a reason that Formula One is based in the UK and Italy, with some minor outposts in Switzerland and Germany. The engineering and supplier base is there, not in Charlotte NC.
To create a successful single-seater racing car production facility in Nascar country, and to staff it and then transport everything to Europe for testing and politics and key races would be a monumental task calling for experienced and exceptionally skilled movers and shakers. The pieces did not come together for this organization to meet all those challenges.
santiagofdz says:
08:51 AM, 03/ 3/10
I agree with seppoboy's comments. It is very very very hard to come up with all that they needed to do to make a car from scratch, not just a successful one, this of course ignoring all the logistics involved in setting up base and getting the car to the rest of the world.
What did Lotus do? Get a known technical figure, outsource some of the windtunnel/design work and then put the pieces together. Virgin had (one guesses) massive funding and Campos/Hispania had Dallara to work with the car and know have Kolles, someone who knows what to do to get a team on the grid. US F1 had it's pride and some nice offices, they had waaay to much stuff on their plate to pull off.
US F1 could have pulled off a Super Aguri had they gotten their hands on Toyota's car (look what that plucky team did with a 5 year old Arrows car...and then all the success they had with a current car). It would have given them time and a baseline from which to work on. A feature in Autosport told the story of Windsor asking his team if they thought they were going to make the grid in Bahrain and he was utterly dismayed when 100% of employees said they didn't think they were going to make it; if it's true, how badly run is a team when management in a small operation is so disconnected from it's employees.
jederino says:
08:51 AM, 03/ 3/10
What a disappointment. I was getting excited reading about their business model in Road and Track last month, and their huge wind tunnel facility. I do not suspect the failure has to do with American manufacturing prowess.