Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Team US F1 silence was deliberate

Team US F1 sporting director Peter Windsor says his outfit's plans to enter Formula 1 are fully on schedule - even though it has kept out of the spotlight compared to its fellow new members of the grand prix community

While Campos, Lotus and Virgin Racing have begun announcing drivers, sponsors and their full plans for 2010, US F1 has been working away in private getting its preparations sorted.

And although that has prompted some to doubt that the team will make it onto the grid in time for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Windsor has now broken the team's silence on its new official website.

"A number of people have asked me why we've been relatively quiet over the past six months or so," he wrote on the website. "My answer is twofold - one, while the F1 politics were sorting themselves out there was very little that we could do or say.

"We're all in the entertainment business we call F1 and there seemed little or no point in adding to the situation from the perspective of a new team.

"Second, since August, we have been building our "house". Literally. We gutted the ex-Hall of Fame Racing/Joe Gibbs NASCAR shop, re-painted it, re-floored it, re-wired it, re-lit it and re-designed it. In three weeks. That's what you can do in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the economic impact of the motorsports industry approaches $6 billion per year. Ask and you will receive. Brilliant.

"And then, once we had a building (and even before we had one), we began to design parts and to hire our team. Again we were building. People wanted to know what was "going on." We replied that we were "putting together the team." It's a bit like building a new house. You don't invite all your neighbours and family around to see it at least until you've got the living room almost done, or a few plates in the kitchen."

He added: "Such are the demands of modern media, however, that every passing minute is another step into history - if you're not saying something, you're not doing anything. Well, I disagree. I think everyone and every company is entitled to its heads-down time. It reminds me of the time a young Winston Churchill left the clamour of London to travel by ship to cover the Boer War in South Africa for an English newspaper.

"During the voyage he enjoyed two weeks of seclusion from any news about the war he was about to write about. And guess what? The war was still raging when he arrived, he quickly brought himself up to speed - and his mind was so fresh that he was able to compose some of the best pieces of war journalism in the history of the English language."

Windsor says the team's preparations for its car are ongoing, and that it has no plans to run its 2010 contender in the wind-tunnel until it is complete.

"I noticed the other day that Nick Wirth issued a press release about the new Virgin F1 car being entirely designed on CFD - Computational Fluid Dynamics (rather than in the wind tunnel)," he said.

"The same thing applies to our car, although we see this as a logical process for a new team rather than something about which to be particularly excited. There's no doubt, though, that the rhythm of life is now different, having worked for both Williams and Ferrari I have no hesitation in saying that."

Team US F1 is expected to confirm its driver line-up in January.

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Briatore: Schumacher can win again
Next article Former Ferrari engine chief joins FIA

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe