Formula One Comes to North Carolina?
First reported by a German source and allegedly confirmed by Autosport, an American group is looking at putting together a team to enter Formula One in 2010.
If plans pan out the team will operate under a tagline of “Made in America” as it will be based in Charlotte, North Carolina which some of you may know as the epicenter of stock car racing and NASCAR in America. There are other very close ties to Charlotte and American Tin-Tops which I’ll get in a minute.
The team as one could expect has strong ties to Europe and F1, with a dash of “Americana” thrown in, American design engineer Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor are said to be behind the project.
Windsor’s resume includes being the sponsorship/team manager for Williams and head of Ferrari’s Guildford Technical Office in Britain. He’s also been a long-time F1 writer/broadcaster with positions at SkySports and various other Rupert Murdoch owned outlets.
Ken Anderson has close ties to racing operations on both sides of the Atlantic. He worked for Roger Penske as a shock designer in the now defunct CART series and race engineered Rick Mears between 1985 and 1988. He also designed the G Force car, which won the Indianapolis 500 (1996) for Arie Luyendyk.
He was lured to Europe by long since dead Ligier to be the French team’s technical director and followed that assignment by joining the equally dead (justice served?) Onyx F1 team. Anderson has also been posted as technical director of Chip Ganassi Racing and setting up Chip Ganassi Racing Ltd. in England.
Now the plot thickens.
In 2003 Anderson was hired on as technical director of Haas CNC Racing’s NASCAR efforts. Haas CNC has since dissembled as Gene Haas sits in the Federal pen on tax evasion charges and has been gobbled up in NASCAR’s “merger mania” and now known as (Tony) Stewart Haas Racing.
Prior to the demise of Haas CNC Gene Haas was said to be an investor/partial owner of Windshear Inc. Haas in conjunction with Jacobs Engineering (allegedly Ken Anderson is also a part owner) has produced the Frankenstein’s Monster of all wind tunnels and conveniently located in Concord, N.C.
The facility opened this past July to great fanfare and followed an earlier announcement an F1 team (unnamed due to confidentiality issues) had signed on as the first to use the facility for testing. (See video here and Windshear’s image gallery here)
As you can see there are plenty of American connections to this story that might lend some credence to it. On the other hand there’s a lot of what are commonly called “weasel words”.
This post is rife with weasel words like “reportedly” and “alleged,” usually descriptions used when sources or data points within a story can’t be confirmed, so take it all with a large grain of salt.
With the current world economic climate that grain of salt may be about, say, this size. Don’t ever say you weren’t forewarned.
Show me the money. Obviously these guys are drinking Max’s “F1 will only cost $50 mill in 2010 koolade”.
And even if costs can be contained to $50 mill, the IRL can’t can’t find $6 mill per team to run a full field.
Show me the money.
I’d like to see the cash myself, and preferably within my grasp, but that’s not likely.
On the other hand at the rate the FIA’s Happy Spanker is dropping the financial bar to compete in F1 it might be cheaper to run in the Prima Donna League than in IndyCar.
Um…Honda is offering a turn-key operation & can’t find a buyer. Further, there might as well be a For Sale sign above STR. Exactly where are these guys planning on raising the cash? The U.S?
I liked the part in The Autosport story that said “the company has a web site, registered to Anderson, that contains only a logo”.
Maybe Max will dust off the customer car proposal again…….so the teams can vote to block it, again.
Peter, I checked the “DNA” behind the website, it was first registered in 2000, although it was just updated in the last couple months.
Although I have to say it’s not unusual for a site to only display a logo or a “future home” type message on a work in progress.
It wouldn’t surprise me if that Mosley suck up Pete Windsor did it at Max’s urging to further promote his phoney $50 mill interest in F1.
“See, if we can cut costs further we have people clamoring to get in the sport”.
Pure unadulterated B.S.
Tell us how you really feel George.
Tell us how you really feel? Windsor is at best a shill & at worst a FIA sycophant.
The guy gave up serious motorsport journalism 24 hours after he got into the business AND that was after he “left” Williams as team manager.
Exactly how many of these “new F1 team” fishing trips has Windsor been on.
Marc, have you read HRH Mosley’s observation about USF1 today?
The FIA boss said the team are to be taken seriously.
“Yes, they have,” Mosley said when asked if the team had approached the FIA. “They are serious people but they are the same as everyone else, they need the costs to come down if they are to be competitive.
“They are recommended by Nick Craw, our man in the States who knows a lot of people. You have to take it seriously.”
Smoke, mirrors and a whole lotta B.S.
By the way I will in all future references to Mosley grant him the HRH title he has obviously earned. Like any king he will only be removed by a massive violent uprising against his reign, and that won’t happen in my lifetime. A heart attack during one of his spankings would be too much to hope for.
George, you may be on the money with your quip about this all being at Max’s bidding.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73135
George:
I’d much rather see an enema gone horribly wrong.
[...] for the new team (as previously noted at FT) it will be based in Charlotte, N.C., and with much of the technology coming from the United [...]
Gentlemen…please…a little decorum is required. But I understand exactly how you all feel. The passion stems from our true love of F1 and the fairness that past great drivers and team builders have reinforced into the fabric of its history. We must wish Mr. Windsor only the best in creating another F1 team which is sorely needed in the US. As for Citizen Mosley: please allow him to see out his tenure. The “truth” about activities and associations (if true) always come out in the end. I am sure that in the end new leaders in F1 will emerge. All I ask is that whoever replaces him will not fall under the control of the Ferrari and its FIA representatives, which has hurt the sport in recent years.