USF1 to Take Fan-Friendly Approach

Windshear wind tunnel in Charlotte, North Carolina

The newly-based USF1 team seems eager to bring back that lost fan-loving spirit of Formula 1 when they'll debut in the series next year. Co-owners Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor revealed that their new outfit will open its doors to the fans from the very second they'll enter the Great Circle, as they reckon that interactivity with the public is a very important issue with the all-American organization.

Therefore, the fans from both North America – who will benefit from a fan-route at team's headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina – and worldwide will have the opportunity to visit the USF1 garage, witness the process of building an F1 car and even touch it.

“We are in the entertainment business and we want it to be a TV-led Formula One team. We are to be that by definition, being so close to Speed TV, and we are also going to have our own TV production facilities inside our factory headquarters,” said Windsor at the unveiling of the team yesterday afternoon, live on Speed TV.

“We are going to make this a very fan-friendly team, not only in the States but globally. We are going to design the fan-route - they will be welcome to come to our HQ, they will be able to tour, look at an F1 car being designed and built. They will be able to touch and feel an F1 team for the first time.”

“It will be a lovely experience to come here; we will have a state of the art facility that will be as good as anything you'll see in Europe. It won't be McLaren or Ferrari because obviously we have no history but we will do it our way, and that's compatible with being here in the US,” added the former Williams F1 technical director.

Although the NASCAR series are very under-appreciated by most European racing fans, Windsor reckoned Formula 1 has a lot to learn from their North American counterparts when it comes to creating a good feed-back from the public.

“If you look at guys like Michael Waltrip and the way they operate their team, that is a case study on how to make motor racing fan friendly. One of the problems with Formula One, (is that) the way the teams present themselves in America has always been very difficult for the fans to grasp what F1 is all about. It is very technical, with lots of money, but nobody ever talks about it and you can never see the technology. Obviously we have an opportunity here to sell Formula One to our fan base and we have got a lot of F1 fans here,” added Windsor.