USF1 DRIVER CONFIRMED

Peter Windsor is in Argentina and just signed "Pechito" Lopez as one of his F1 drivers for 2010.

 

Ah yes; the great American driver Pechito Lopez. Hooray for the red white and blue. And green.
He was my first pick.
Was he in Late Model Modifieds or Trucks ?
I forget.

 

Where are they now #3 – “Pechito” López
April 8, 2009, 12:19
Filed under: GP2
Pechito López began his post-karting career in Europe after emigrating from Argentina in 2001 with much promise, winning the Italian Formula Renault 2.0 title in 2002 and finishing 4th in the Eurocup. As a result, Pechito was included in the 2003 Renault Development Driver program, along with Heikki Kovalainen (WSR) and Eric Salignon (F3 UK), testing several times for the Renault F1 team.

After winning the Renault V6 Eurocup with the DAMS team in 2003 in an epic title battle with Neel Jani, there were very high expectations for José María “Pechito” López in his evolution towards higher racing categories, even more with RDD’s support. In 2004 he joined F3000 with the second Coloni team (CMS), without much glory and eventually ending up in 6th place without a win.

For 2005 López re-joined DAMS for the inaugural GP2 season. As an RDD driver, it was a “must” to be there – joined again by Kovalainen. and López started off strong, winning the 4th race of the season – the sprint race at Montmeló. That was the high point of an inconsistent season, where he only managed one more podium – a 2nd place in the feature race at Magny Cours – and eventually finishing 9th in the champioship.

In 2006, Pechito moved over to the Super Nova team (curiously once again teamed up with Fairuz Fauzy), but had a dismal season with many retirements and accidents. Lopez ended up 10th, with only 3 podiums and no wins. That same year, Lopez was dropped by RDD, most likely putting an end to any hopes of reaching F1.

Though for the 2007 GP2 season Lopez tested successfully with BCN Competición, his exit from RDD left him without any significant support to continue his racing career in Europe. That year, he returned to Argentina to race in the highly competitive TC2000 touring car series, racing against other Argentinian top drivers such as Matias Rossi, Martin Basso and Cristian Ledesma. Lopez finished the year in 5th place with 3 wins, returning in 2008 to be the series champion. That year, Lopez won 4 races with his Honda Civic, ending up 19 points clear of 2nd place Guillermo Ortelli.

In 2008 Lopez also contested the FIA GT1 championship with the ACA Team from Argentina, running a Ferrari 550 Maranello, yet with little success. Today, Lopez is contesting the more powerful (though less competitive) Top Race V6 in Argentina, with a Mercedes Benz.

In summary, a career that started with much promise, to the point of being an F1 tester, but was quickly destroyed by the lack of results in his brief GP2 career. Another victim of GP2?

 

Great. All they need now is... a car. Oh, and a team. Oh, yah... a transporter. And, a sponsor,... some mechanics...a lollypop...let me see...a pit board....


Maybe they can go to Racing "R" Us over the weekend and pick up the rest.

 

Anyone care to explain why or for how much it takes to go from Honda Civic to F1 car in 2 years.

 

Not a surprise announcement. Not the rebirth of JM Fangio but his credentials are better than what I anticipated. So where'd he dig up the money ?

 

there's a looong list of sponsors, a credit card company, a cellphone company plus the usual Argentinian complement from Reuteman days if I recall. Approx $10M.

 

Maybe they can continue the hard work and get it that way.

 

Maybe another victim of inadequate skill?

 

A lot of people work hard in this life and get nowhere. You still need money to make it in this sport.

 

An 8 million sponsorship from different sources, including the Argentinean government.
Today, both, Windsor and Lopez had a meeting with a top minister (Randazzo) at the Presidential palace to "polish" the deal.

 

And what part of this qualifies him for a super license?

Was it the 6th place in F3000 or ending up 9th in GP2?

Regardless, I love this guy already: He'll be a mobile chicane causing a lot of carnage. At least F1 won't be boring anymore. Cool.

 

I'd expect a reply like this only from you! Gave me quite a chuckle

 

Just bring back Yuji Ide already !!

we might have some Mario kart action like bernie wanted with his cut-chicane idea

 

Don't give Bernie ideas!

2008- Medal proposal
2009- ShortCut proposal
2010- Mobile Chicane proposal

qualifications for Mobile Chicane driver

-must have ZERO experience in an F1 car.
-must have not been competitive in at least 2 categories directly feeding into F1
-must be so totally preoccupied with just keeping the car on the road that he has absolutely no idea what is going on around him...


Maybe this is PeeWees nomination of his driver for "Mobile Chicane" ?

 

Might as well be Jennifer Lopez.

 

And lots of it.

You missed my point entirely, or perhaps intentionally.

 

Lameola

 

Maybe you missed mine...

Making a car and having a driver isn't making a TEAM. You still need a team to make things work. And, they seem in no hurry to make one.

I think this is a big PR stunt. Will a car show up oneday for some photo shoots? Probably.

Will a team show up at a track... not likely.

Anyone can announce a driver. Few can put a team on the track and fewer still can do it with little or no money.

 

+1. I personally see this as being how things will unfold. As others have said, with Anderson and others being involved in the Falcon sham, this looks like more of the same.

Brawn was successful because they were emphatically NOT a startup team. It was more of a renaming than anything else. The infrastructure (building, staff, contracts, etc) was in place since it was an existing race team that had competed for several seasons.

Planning means doing the groundwork and working towards the goal in a measurable manner.

Dreaming means not doing the groundwork and hoping something fall into place and everything works its way out somehow...

Honda/Brawn/Mercedes worked from the first and USF1 from the latter. I also believe that USF1 without a pre-existing infrastructure does not have the capability to become a competitve racing team at the pinnacle of motorsports unless their "dream comes true"...

Frank

 

Hey;
You gotta do what you gotta do.
Now go kick Shumi's but.

 

I qualify! Yeah!

LOL

I think we already have a nickname for the mobile chicane. And just like Jaylo, his car might be a bit wide in the back not giving any room for lapping drivers. Oh the fun we'll have...

This is Schlesser vs Senna all over again. Or DC vs MS in Spa. Or MS vs JPM in the Monaco tunnel. Or...

 

On Monday USF1 will make an official announcement on Lopez.

 

What if the Mobile Chicane gets a championship point for each car he takes out? Could be rather interesting and add a whole new speculation to the betting folk.

I nominate Piquet jr for this version of Mobile Chicane. Has he put in his application yet?

 

We have J Lo for Jenifer Lopez.
How bout P Lo ?
Short for "Plow".