Let's keep it Ferrari related and bring back a historic name since that seems to be in vogue these days while still acknowledging the American aspect of the team. There is ONE unique candidate that fulfills these requirements: NART has a real nice ring to it, doesn't it? Frank p.s. Be even cooler if we could have Ferrari support and assistance and Ferrari engine supply Americans would have the name brand appeal of Ferrari, plus a lot of the huge American mega-corporations would be VERY RECEPTIVE to branding themselves with Ferrari (the name alone has magnetic sponsor appeal). The idea is more feasible than you think and there are many people that would love to see a dream like this realized... This is obviously AFTER PW and KA are long gone and the staff modified where necessary to get qualified people in all of the necessary positions. Ferrari could even lend a helping hand where necessary. The possibilities bring a big SMILE to my face For instance I could see Mario referring back to his NART days in a commercial, for example...
FYI, N.A.R.T. stands for North American Racing Team (too bad Chinetti can't take his rightful place) It does not stand for: Not A Real Toaster
If Bernie was OK with USF1, he would probably be interested in a team that combined Ferrari with the North American market and fan base. A Ferrari assisted team that is STRONG would definitely propel F1 popularity in the US since they would have Americans that they could relate to. Bernie has tried various ways to get F1 to get beyond niche status in the US and the Ferrari association with the team could definitely take it to great heights since it would have the name brand recognition... The only fly in the ointment at this point in time is the status of the world economy which makes money much more tight and harder to get sponsors to get the accountants to OK the expense and have to explain the decision to the board of directors. A very tough sell at this point in time for any new start-up... ...but we can dream, can't we? Frank
All of which are American dreams! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZyNN10z600&feature=related An apt track from the awesome R.A.T.M
Actually, all kidding aside I think some level of NASCAR / F1 interaction would be a good thing for F1 in the US. Problem is, the NASCAR fans around here already believe they are the pinnacle of motorsport, and cars that can turn right are just wasteful. What do NASCAR and their fans stand to gain from the partnership? I'm not seeing a lot in it for them.
I've said MANY times that the US has so many licensing, PR and sponsoring opportunities that are completely untapped. The problem with USF1 is that they tried too hard to do it all by themselves and never reached out as far as I can see. This "skunk works" attitude is the exact OPPOSITE you want on a new team. Instead of getting former F1 greats involved, even as just a spokesperson to get people and sponsors excited, they went off on their own. There's a lot of racing that goes on in the US. There's a lot of talented people and technology in the US. There's a lot of money in the US. There just hasn't been the inclination, correct formula or savvy enough people to channel it properly. Don't tell me we can't build a chassis and car worthy of F1. Tell Ferrari and McLaren to put a man on the moon. Hell we're even making aircraft from private industry that can go into space. Now tell me we don't have talent. The USF1 failure is so bad because the effort seems so childish and came up short it's hard to believe it wasn't always a scam and not a real effort. Once again, the US fails miserably in the world racing community. What a pity.
Spot on. With the right people running this effort the US could build a car and a team that would cream the competition. If a country like Malaysia can do it, why couldn't we? What he said.
Here we go again with the hate fueled criticism. I challenge you to call a few random people at USF1 (704-946-90xx) and let them know that they are an embarrassment to the US and did not make an effort. Even if you're only referring to PW/KA, I can't see how you can still be so blind as to think this. I'd really like to know how the scam was supposed to play out in their favor. Incompetence is one thing; and if it hasn't already been demonstrated to your satisfaction I'm sure in the next 6 months it will be definitively shown to have been the case. But not a real effort? Come on. I have to believe you're wrong about this. If there are/were "so many" opportunities, an outfit with the popularity of US-freakin-F1, regardless of how incompetent, should have been able to tap some of it. Please also consider that there are other, existing teams that can't even attract sponsors. kee-rist even Brawn in a dominant year could only get a minor sponsor who abandoned him. In fact, I'll go so far as to speculate that one of the failings of USF1 is that they overestimated the sponsorship potential.
There were several things wrong in this approach, which made it look silly right from the start. The failure to secure sponsorship early on being the biggest mistake. Others are location, timing, planning, setting expectations, communication to name a few. Also remember how Windsor (or anybody else from USF1) didn't bother to attend the FIA's meetings at the final races in 2009? If you're serious about participating going forward, wouldn't you have an interest in that? I dont believe it was a scam, but it was not a real effort and had the smell of scam when you looked at the reality as portrayed on the videos vs the statements/press releases and their lofty goals. Add to that the peculiar situation of having a grid position secured, but not a car while other teams were in the reverse position made it certainly look more like a fire sale than anything. Add to that the history of Anderson with his attempts to start an IRL team and it looks a bit like the dotcom craze of the me-tooers. PS: The comment about "not real effort" is btw not targeted at the engineers/workers, but purely at the heads. Not that I speak for bdelp, but that's how I see it. PPS: Had they really tried and failed, I think there would have been a lot less negative feedback.
To be fair, "the country of Malaysia" didn't do anything except adequately fund a primarily UK effort. But your and bdelp's thought that the US is quite capable of building a dominant car, I agree with. And Charlotte would be the correct place to run it from. Too bad the effort had poor leadership. Let's give a little slack here though. It cannot be easy to run an F1 team -- perhaps the pinnacle of motorsport (I leave some room open for LeMans perhaps), much less start from absolute scratch. I think that many of the armchair critics would fail pretty badly as well, as I know I would. But I realize my limitations and would not head up such an effort. These two bozos ... well, 'nuff said. Amateur hour. I have my doubts that they could field a LeMons car.
I just read that as American bravado. I still don't see the scam bit; how would the principals benefit?
I know I couldn't do it, but I'm sure there are enough brilliant US managers out there who could. While starting from scratch is brutal, I can even envision that as a real option, just looking at what Virgin and Lotus did. American can do attitude is great, talking about the "strong US carbon fibre", "the extra 6 hours for being in the US", "the advantage of being in Charlotte" and other PeeWisms is just plain stupid. Remember "we're in this for the long haul, 5 to 10 years and the championship"? That's where they lost the charm of e.g. a Minardi, who were in it for the love of the sport. Well, that opportunity melted like ice in the sun: Remember when Wind-sore was asking the FIA whether a team could sell its grid position? I suppose after the negative response his personal morale went into the basement. And given Anderson latest press release it seems like he is still trying to find an angle with Stefan GP. I mean what has he got to sell beyond his grid spot?
Neither is a F1 shop however. So a US team could/should base its F1 effort on an existing non F1 team (e.g. IRL).
This is what puzzles me, if the good ole USA wanted to have a WCC winning car I have no-doubt whatsoever they could, but it needs cash and lots of it and interest as in fans wanting to watch it and support it. So it's probably a catch 22 situation so it aint gonna happen. The best that come out of this mess is another team picks up the spot like Stefan, thats as long as pride or the FIA doesn't get in the way.
I seem to be the only one who remembers it the other way -- that Windsor was the sole person AGAINST being able to sell your grid slot. Can you find any article about it? I can only find http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/f1-usf1-will-be-on-2010-grid/ which states that PW denies voting for being able to sell. Nothing ... so let's get back to the point, how is it a scam? PW and KA have lost pretty much everything (present and future), the sale of a grid spot won't even cover the team's debts.
I think it could be done, but with a slightly different approach: Forget the US F1 fans and their support. That will never be big enough to become interesting for the sponsors. But: Put US sponsors on the car who seek global exposure. USF1 almost nailed that one with "Best Buy": There were some rumors back in August that Best Buy wants to open stores in Europe and become a USF1 sponsor. Sadly that didn't materialize, but it would have made sense. There are lots of US companies who might want to go global at some point. Get one of those behind your team and on to the most watched sport on this planet.
I have to update this comment. I do agree that the USF1 effort was childish and as I said already, amateur hour. So in that sense, yes, not a real effort. My criticism of "not a real effort" is just that I believe PW/KA did make their best go at it, they just weren't up to the task. So in that sense, they did make a full effort. Just my 0.02
Agreed. The US fan base for F1 overall is tiny. Any sponsor is far far better supporting NASCAR. But given the lack of US fans, why would they have to go with a US team? Look at the existing US-based global companies, just to start you off: AT&T. I would focus on eu-based companies that want to crack the US nut. Work damn hard to bring a race into the US in the next 5 years, and a 2nd race in 10 years. Basically you'd have to get in bed with Bernie.
USF1 was stupid from the outset. The last "new" entry into F1 was Toyota. We know how that turned out.
By far the best way to enter F1 is to buy into an existing level F1 team. The next is to bring a minor league team up to F1 level by fleshing out where necessary. The worst possible way is to not even have an existing team and start from scratch with personnel that don't have F1 experience. This was an absolute non-starter. PW was wrong to portray USF1 as capable of building a car and reaching the grid and being competitive. It hurt having USF1 contribute to the image of Americans as intellectually incapable of appreciating or competing in the intricacies of F1 racing; as opposed to technically simpler forms of racing on lesser challenging tracks in America. This one's gonna sting for awhiile...
