“Financial trouble” is how Anderson explained his team’s current situation, while admitting he is constantly talking to the FIA about the prospect of showing up on the F1 grid at Barcelona, some 4 races later than scheduled.
“We're working with the FIA to clarify how many races we can miss. In an ideal world, we can miss the first four races and show up in Barcelona,” he told the New York Times newspaper yesterday, confirming the early reports issued by the aforementioned publication regarding US F1’s financial problems.
While the FIA president Jean Todt initially told the media that some teams may miss up to 3 races (not necessarily consecutive) through the duration of the 2010 season, the international body responded via a statement a few days later (earlier this month) insisting that a single missed race will constitute an infringement of the rules.
If that will prove to be true, Anderson admitted his team is as good as dead.
“I guess anything's possible. But what would be the point of that? Why would they give us a franchise and just, the first time there's a bump in the road, yank it and put it out of business? That's definitely not the message that I'm getting from them. They want to help us, not shut us down,” added Anderson, while also insisting that the longer the FIA will wait in giving them an answer, the more they risk losing the sponsors they are in talks with for the 2010 season.
Additionally, Anderson insisted that neither his partner Peter Windsor, nor the team’s initial investor Chad Hurley (YouTube founder) have left the Charlotte organization just yet, while signed driver Jose Maria Lopez is “weighing his options as well.”
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