Given the complete failure of USF1, did your opinion of Peter Windsor change?
True, but none of those show up on TV every race. Nor do they normally write some stupid column in a F1 magazine.
Absolute con job from start to finish, IMHO. I applaud Matchett and Varsha for being loyal and sticking their necks on the line, but it absolutely blew up in their faces when the childish amateur videos came out. How they were able to keep straight faces and play along will be seen as others as wrong and I can certainly respect that viewpoint. I personally would rather believe that they stuck their necks on the line to get Windsor some credibility and it failed miserably... I have always rated Matchett and I also like Hobbs (as a former F1 driver he is entitled to judge his peers). It was alarming when Hobbs did not play along and never commented (AFAIK) and certainly did not participate in the videos. That tells me that he knew from experience that it wasn't going to play out in the end. Matchett is very knowledgeable from his work as a mechanic and other roles with various F1 teams and I am very disappointed that he went along with the charade. His video where they focused on the single computer monitor while the rest of the place was obviously not business-ready was in my eyes a very shameful participation. I think not only did PW mislead a lot of people, but he caused a lot of damage to their reputations and their wallets (man oh man do I feel bad for the people that moved to Charlotte and busted their tails and at the tail end they don't even get paid)... I really don't see how PW can politically recover from this. He will (and should) be persona not grata to Speed. However I do see him popping up as a magazine correspondent (whether continuing in F1 Racing or another publication). PW hurt a lot of people with this project and conned a lot of people in the process. I really am having a very hard time having sympathy for him. I believe many others feel the same... Frank
I think all of this is pretty much par for the course in auto racing. Windsor strikes me as a promoter; I don't think there's any fraud here, just tremendous overpromising, miscalculation, perhaps playing with OPM. Maybe they figured that a grid spot would find money. The real devils are folks like (allegedly) Greg Loles (if the allegations against him are true; have to be careful because I think he has friends here).
Greg Loles: http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/02/16/news/metro/doc4b7a6e4336800619163324.txt "Loles allegedly admitted to federal investigators that he used investors money to finance Farnbacher Loles, his Danbury race car team and repair shop, for personal expenses and fraudulent interest payments to investors."
Well I only know of Windsor because of this forum. The problem has been IMO, is that USF1 has kept the door shut to world and not let the world know what is the problem or what really is going on, it really looks like it was BS from the get go now. Shamefull and very dissapointing to be honest, yet still the USF1 team maintains that it is still alive, despite reports of its demise.. So if in fact that is not the case and it's more BS, PW is a complete and utter F-k wit.
My point in bringing up Loles was simply that USF1 strikes me as the type of slick scheme that comes up fairly often in auto racing. Let's face it, the sport has a lot of colorful personalities. Remember Andy Evans? Thought there are truly wonderful people in racing, there are also a not insignificant number who seem to survive by selling Nothing Really. Attractively packaged and pitched, Nothing Really draws buyers. When someone like Hurley wanders into racing, I'm not going to be surprised or even feel terribly sorry for him if he's separated from his wool.
Carol, it's amazing that so many of the knowledgable fans among us shared almost EXACTLY the same feelings regarding PW and BSf1...
I gotta agree with you. The real REAL shame here is that so much anger is deflected from Ken Anderson; to bring up Frank's post it's not PW's fault that many people have moved to Charlotte for naught, it's Anderson's. It's not PW that has ruined this whole venture, it's KA. Whatever PW said and didn't say, that's not the reason USF1 do not have a car ...
"it's amazing that so many of the knowledgable fans among us shared almost EXACTLY the same feelings regarding PW and BSf1..." Many of us immediately saw USF1 as a long shot, very speculative venture and asked, from the start, where's the money? The money needed is huge, and there may be "different" or novel ways of cracking the F1 puzzle, but a low budget isn't one of them. The talent needed also is huge, both behind the wheel and at the factory, and so some of us asked about that, too. I really don't care how smart the boys in Carolina are, F1 is its own world and a small group of people have played the game a very long time. I really don't care about Hurley's brilliance as an entrepreneur - that's irrelevant to racing success IMO. And if all you bring to the table is money, you'd better bring a lot; racing will devour all the money you throw at it, and bark for more. Honda and Toyota ran away from F1. The chips were always stacked heavily against the new teams making the grid in the first place, much less surviving. I think it's naive to feel hurt or deceived if USF1 fails. Race teams fail all the time. Big deal. What irritated me about USF1 was the idea that it represented the US. Ford, Chevy could represent the US in F1, but not these guys.
"The real REAL shame here is that so much anger is deflected from Ken Anderson" Probably very smart to let Windsor be the face of USF1! I agree.
Wow! You've *really* got it in for Ken, huh!? And I think Frank laid the "blame" firmly at PW's feet: *Maybe* Ken didn't do the job "expected", but without any $, what could he do? Seems like there's plenty of "blame" to be distributed... Cheers, Ian
This really is a too bad. One of my really good friends since high school was employed full-time by Farnbacher Loles race team. They sent everyone home a couple months ago with my buddy's first kid just weeks away. Coincidentally I remember Greg as the single worst driver with the single fastest cars at several of my first track events at Watkins Glen back in '02. He had a new RUF 996TT that I was smoking in my e30 325. He was dangerously erratic and slow. Anyway, very interesting.
My sentiments haven't changed either way. I never expected him to deliver and so wasnt surprised. To think I was a fan of his driver analysis articles in F1 racing - after about a year or two, i realized he was talking smack. Basically a F1 lightweight.
PW was the leader and the face of USF1. In the end it all comes down to his personal responsibility of who he associates with, who he does business with, who he has on his own team. If PW was not comfortable with KA, then it was his responsibility to not go into business with him... again it all goes back to PW having to look in the mirror... PW has no excuse, there are QUALIFIED F1 personnel for all capacities and PW selected/agreed to bring on board KA and other employees instead... not only this but with his many years of experience with the Williams team and others he knows the deadlines and checkpoints that must be met enroute to delivering a competitve F1 car along with the infrastructure necessary to deliver it. Also, it was not KA that did public announcements on Speed for USF1, it was not KA that set up and monitored the publicized videos of the company, it was not KA that had to apoligize to their poor driver with "tears in his eyes"... In the end the ultimate responsibility comes down to PW... As Gracian says "Use the best instruments. Some people want to be thought subtle because they use poor instruments. This is a dangerous sort of satisfaction and it deserves a fatal punishment. The worth of a prime minister never detracted from the greatness of his master. To the contrary, all the credit for success falls upon its principle cause, as does criticism in the face of failure. It is superiors who win the renown. One never says "He had good, or bad, ministers" but "He was a good, or bad, craftsman." So choose carefully, examine your ministers. To them you are entrusting your immortal fame" Frank
