Lopez's manager slams US F1 boss

Jose Maria Lopez's manager Felipe McGough has criticised US F1 team boss Ken Anderson, saying he is the main culprit for the American squad failing to reach the Formula 1 grid

"The main culprit of all this is Ken Anderson," McGough told Argentina's FOX Sports in a telephone interview.

"These people fooled the FIA, FOTA and all the teams, FOM, all the employees they hired, 'Pechito' Lopez, and Milos Pavlovic, the other driver they had signed to be in the project.

"It's not that they fooled us only. The situation of US F1 in Europe is some sort of scandal amongst teams because it makes F1 looks very bad. Argentina is just a small part of the problem, but it's a very, very big for Formula 1."

McGough said he was not aware of any problems with the team when Lopez signed a deal to race with it.

He added: "We signed the deal just 48 hours after the FIA sent an inspector to Charlotte and confirmed that the project was fully underway."

McGough said Lopez had been finally released from his contract and was now set to become Hispania Racing's reserve driver.

"We spent all day talking with the team," he added. "We finally managed to get released from the contract with the US F1 team. We had a meeting with Ken Anderson, with Chad Hurley's representatives, with Peter Windsor and with team's lawyers.

"It was a very complex situation because they had not breached the contract, but we knew they would not make it to Bahrain. So we had to find a solution so Jose Maria would not be tied to the team and he could find an alternative.

"And that's what we achieved after a lot of hours of negotiation."

McGough claimed Anderson or sporting director Peter Windsor had promised to travel to Argentina to apologise and to offer an explanation about the situation.