USF1 open-minded on engine partner

After officially unveiling their plans on Tuesday, team principal Ken Anderson and sporting director Peter Windsor say that they have already settled on a timetable to begin firming up their new outfit.

And Anderson said that they were totally open about linking up with a car manufacturer and were well aware of how big a market America is for the likes of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota.

"We are going to send a proposal to all the manufacturers currently in Formula One, to let them know we are here and to entertain them," said Anderson.

"Every manufacturer in Formula One now, their biggest market is the US. The only exception to that is Renault, but they have an alliance with Nissan, so it could still make commercial sense for them."

Before finalising the plans for engines, however, the team say their priority is to settle their driver line-up - with Marco Andretti already having been strongly linked with the outfit.

Speaking about the timeframe for decisions, Windsor said: "We have come up with a timeline for the year by which time decisions have to be made. But as I say they are all things that race teams do anyway, they are not things that are going to be massively difficult to achieve now we are where we are.

"We are a team, we have a budget and we are going to be spending that in the correct way achieving those goals when they need to be achieved.

"In no particular order they are going to be drivers, engines, European location, the building here, sponsors. All those things are things to be doing now. That's what we are going to be doing from 2009 onwards.

"Drivers are going to be the fun thing aren't they? We've already mentioned Marco, we didn't mention Graham Rahal. Another driver out there who is the son of a great American star. There are so many great things to be doing I just can't wait to get down to the local Starbucks and have more meetings.

"We are going to be that sort of team. Because we are not one individual dominating the team, we are going to do it the way racing people do it. And there are all these great people to meet and talk about."