I really, really hope this is true....and I also hope we don't have to wait as long for the other car to get out of the oven. Mark
The Formula One commercial rights-holder revealed that he expects two of the four new teams with sanctioned grid slots for next season Campos F1 and USF1 not to make it. I think the people we expected to perform will and those that we thought wouldnt, wont, he said. Ecclestone expects 24 cars to start the opening race in Bahrain in March.
This chassis does match CFD drawings that came out a few months ago. Mark Image Unavailable, Please Login
I thought they were further along than that..... No budget for decal remover ? Image Unavailable, Please Login
goes along with post #3 on here but a different source... Carol * * * * * Ecclestone has doubts over US F1 and Campos ESPNF1 Staff December 22, 2009 Bernie Ecclestone doesn't think US F1 and Campos will make the grid © Sutton Images Related LinksProfiles: Bernie Ecclestone Teams: Campos | US F1 F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone has said he does not expect two of the new teams - US F1 and Campos - to be on the grid in 2010. Four new teams have been granted entry to next year's championship, but Ecclestone told The Times he thought US F1 and Campos would not be in a position to race by the start of the season. "I think the people we expected to perform will and those that we thought wouldn't, won't," he told the paper. There has been speculation for some time that US F1 would not be ready in time, as the team has remained relatively quiet since the FIA granted it a place in F1 2010. The team still hasn't confirmed its drivers, but has paid the US$440,000 entry fee to race next year. Campos has signed Bruno Senna as a driver for 2010 and has been in talks with a number of other drivers. However, it has made clear that it does not have the resources to pay big money. Its chassis is being manufactured by Dallara and has already passed two of the FIA's mandatory crash tests, suggesting it is well on the way to being ready. Ecclestone told the paper he thought 24 cars would be on the grid at the start of the season. With US F1 and Campos there would be a total of 26 cars in Formula One, indicating that Ecclestone thinks another new team could take the place of the two he expects to leave.
Well, it seems that they are trying to do something, even if they are running extremely late. I don't see what team could fill the empty spot in the middle of the season though, i don't get Bernie...
Agreed. This is actually a lot further ahead than I thought they were. I wonder how they built this? My guess is that they outsourced the fabrication. Doesn't matter, they got a chassis. Now lets crash test this baby and see whether it meets those standards. If it does, the rest of the car isn't that big of a deal anymore. Remember: They can skip the whole testing and just aim for the first practice. Doesn't matter if they're gonna be dead last. As long as the car is on the grid.
Notice the wording of the article. It says that the first chassis came out of the autoclave. Nowhere in the article does it say that the picture, depicted, is of an actual USF1 chassis. Nowhere in the article or picture is a caption that says, "Posing with the USF1 chassis is . . . " One would think that if an article is titled "USF1 debuts first chassis" or something similar, then there would be a very specific description. Look, guys, I think that is probably a legitimate picture, but why is it that EVERYTHING associated with this company is left for speculation. Why not just say, "We have a picture of Ken Anderson with his new F-1 chassis."
I think you're being too harsh on them now. And you know I have been one of their biggest sceptics. That does look like a F1 chassis and a Cossie behind it. Let's see whether this passes the FIA crash tests. If it does, they're a good way to the grid.
True. But if the goal is simply to make it to the grid (nobody said anything of checkered flag), then the tub/car is 60% of the effort. They can be absolutely abismal in their performance, the car blowing up after one lap, the team have one mechanic to push it to the grid. Doesn't matter. As long as they get the car there, they made it.
More like 20% of the effort -- and that's just the car. And, you still have to create a team. They are not Dallara just making a chassis and selling it to someone to race. I can't see anyhow they can make it for 2010 without buckets of cash (which they don't have) and a huge and experienced team of people working for them (which they won't get), and a time stretcher (which Einstein outlawed).
Wow I cant believe no one has said it yet. Does anyone know who that mystery man is behind the tub??? Thats Nick Craw from the FIA
No, you don't. You only need a team if you want to compete in F1 for points and podiums. To get a car to the grid, you need one guy who delivers the car from the airport to the pit box. Insert your F1 hopeful and do a few laps to qualify. Obviously I'm devil's advocate here, but seriously, once they have a tub (and that tub passes FIA crash tests), the rest of the car can be added in the given timeframe. They can hire a few NASCAR mechanics to get the thing to the first GP. Case in point: When I drove a ex Damon Hill F1 at our local race track, the (meanwhile defunct) US company which organized it, had about 3 mechanics and one manager. Just operating a F1 car, which is not state of the art (e.g. Cossie) doesn't take a 20 person team. That's only for folks who take it serious. Thanks for that info.
Well, I respectfully disagree. The concept of USF1 was to make a US based TEAM, not simply a PR stunt. You can put a monkey in the seat, start the engine in the pit lane, and say you were there. That's not contributing to the sport in anyway. And even if they do what you suggest, are you going to do that all season? While flying around the world every two weeks they are supposed to build a team from scratch with no testing and no resources? It's silly.
I'm curious about this statement. Why would you not expect the Cosworth engine to be state-of-the-art? The engine formula has been fixed for years now (including bore size, materials, cylinder angle, etc.) and the engine management is McLaren spec-boxes. It seems that anyone with a decent CNC machine should be able to to generate a 'state-of-the-allowed-art' engine, as there is little to no R&D involved.
Good point and you're right that engine development has been frozen. Still all the teams employ a bunch of engineers and technicians monitoring the engine and the car's telemetry to change settings like fuel mixture etc. My point was more about that aspect of it: You can do without all those people and have "just" some Cossie technicians over to start the engine and replace it or parts when necessary. I might be wrong on this, but somehow I think teams like Ferrari, Merc or Renault are still more involved with their engines than the customer teams who just plonk the lump in there.
I agree with Andreas on this one. This is a significant step forward. Let's hope they pass the crash testing. Also - let's remember that the artical said the information came from a source close to the team. Not from USF1 itself. They are still operating under very tight security when it comes to sharing of progress/information. I do hope that they will make the grid and had pretty much given up hope. Of course I would also like to see them compete with the other new teams for best of the new and not just be a joke. We'll see - maybe soon on a real web site...
