The Short Life of the US F1 Team, Great Ambitions With a Disappointing Result

Well, here is the story of the US F1 Team that proves once again how hard it is to start a team in Formula 1. Basically, everything began in 2009 when the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) announced that they were expanding the size of the Formula 1 grid in 2010 to 13 teams instead of only ten. Just before the spring of that year, Peter Windsor (a British journalist) and Ken Anderson (an American engineer who specialized in motorsport) appeared on an American show saying that they formed a team called US F1 and applied for an entry three months prior.

Anderson had a lot of experience from being an engineer in extremely important motorsport competitions such as NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, and others. He was so good that he was the Technical Director for Stewart-Haas Racing at one moment. Besides, he designed the Windshear wind tunnel, which was used by so many IndyCar and NASCAR teams. On the other side, Peter Windsor was a very familiar face around the private and exclusive world of F1. In the 1980s, he was a sponsorship manager at Williams before turning to the TV industry and doing interviews with drivers, team managers, etc. It's safe to say that the team shouldn't have any problems making it to the grid with such people as leaders. Well, that it's not always the case.

The US F1 team was the first American Formula 1 team since Haas-Lola in 1986, and they wanted to have their main base of operations in the United States rather than Europe. Basically, they would have been like Haas is today, which is the only team currently in F1 to have their base outside of Europe. The officials, managers, and other executives moved into their headquarters in Charlotte in the middle of March. Those headquarters were once the base of the NASCAR team called Hall of Fame Racing.

Initially, the FIA proposed a budget cap for 2010 of $50 million, which for a sport like Formula 1 is pocket money. As a result, almost all the established teams and all members of the Formula One Teams' Association threatened to withdraw from F1 and create their own series. Of course, the FIA got scared and quickly changed their minds. The new proposal was that the established teams would provide technical support to the new ones.

At the beginning of the summer, US F1's entry was approved. They actually appeared on the official entry list for the 2010 Formula 1 season, alongside Manor Grand Prix and Campos Grand Prix, the other two new faces. All three teams were supposed to use Cosworth engines. Because of this dispute and other factors, the US F1 team's preparations were delayed by almost half a year.

However, everything was going well for them. In the summer of the same year, it was announced that Bernard Ferguson (former Director of Motorsport at Cosworth) had joined the team as lead engine consultant. Later, co-founder and CEO of YouTube, Chad Hurley, was the primary investor.

In September, US F1 joined the Formula 1 Teams' Association, and the first renditions of their race car, Type 1, were revealed. About a month later, that story of having a base operation in America was abandoned. As a result, the team's officials announced that they had established a European base at MotorLand Aragon in Spain, where they recruited Dave Stubbs as European Operations Manager. Stubbs had previously worked for teams like Brabham, Williams, Stewart, and Red Bull, and he was a veteran of the sport.

As the winter was coming, they already had a factory with a second under construction, a car in development, and all the primary staff they needed. But something essential was missing. Can you guess what? If you said the drivers, then kudos to you. Peter Windsor declared they wanted an all-American lineup and would not accept pay drivers.

Nevertheless, this idea was quickly abandoned. By the end of January 2010, Argentinian driver Jose Maria Lopez was confirmed (with a little help from a guy called Carlos Reutemann) as the first driver for US F1. Unfortunately, things from here will start to go downhill.

During Jose Maria Lopez's announcement, Argentine media claimed that Honda's former test driver James Rossiter had also signed with the team. I know everything was going great, but while US F1 car was still barely off the drawing board and they were trying to build their driver's lineup, all the other established teams were ready for pre-season tests in Juarez.

The American team missed the first two pre-season tests. After that, they asked FIA for permission to miss the first four races and make their debut at the Spanish Grand Prix in May. Well, US F1 had a bad management structure, so Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor were losing sponsors and staff members. As a result, they terminated Lopez's contract, and by spring, the team asked to defer entirely to 2011. Ken Anderson wanted to offer Gene Haas a leadership role within the group, but Gene refused. Funny enough, Haas formed his American Formula 1 team that did make it onto the grid just four years later.

At this moment, the American team had more than ten months to develop a racing car, sign drivers and staff members, and sort everything out. However, a month later, they folded, ultimately running out of money, and put their assets up for auction, including even a pair of trailers they bought from Brawn GP. This was the team that won the championship the previous season. A month and a half later, Parris Mullins announced he intended to form a new American team for 2011 from the remains of US F1. The new group was supposed to be called Cypher, and neither Peter Windsor nor Ken Anderson was supposed to have any involvement.

Unfortunately, this was quickly stopped in its tracks because, in June, the World Motor Sport Council conducted an investigation into US F1's failure to compete in the 2010 Formula 1 season. As a result, for bringing the FIA into disrepute, they were fined $309,000 and blocked from taking part in any future FIA-sanctioned events.

On the other side, Jose Maria Lopez never got his chance to enter F1 but still went on to become a two-time WEC world champion, a three-time Touring Car champion, and he is a winner at the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans event. Meanwhile, Rossiter spent two years as a Force India reserve driver while also competing in other competitions like World Endurance Championship (WEC), Super Formula, Super GT, and Formula E. Ken Anderson now works as a freelancer motorsport engineer, while Peter Windsor could be seen almost every race weekend doing journalist work in the F1 paddocks.

It's clear that US F1 would have never been as successful as Haas. Still, it would have been an excellent addition to the world of Formula 1, but unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be.

The US F1 Team web server is down and is being repaired as this is written. We are not gone, as many have reported. More news soon.

— USF1 Team (@USF1Team) February 18, 2010