New US team backed by F1 chiefs

Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor officially launched their USF1 outfit in a press conference live on SpeedTV on Tuesday, and say their plans to be up and running by 2010 are far more than a dream.

Windsor, who will be USF1's sporting director, said that his team planned to break the mould for how outfits approached grand prix racing.

"If you look at the way it has gone in the recent past, it has been find an incredibly rich trillionaire and have him dominate the team - and you are lucky enough to get a job when you've put the team together," said Windsor.

"Or you are lucky enough to be invited by a large car company to set up an F1 team for them. Ken and I are lucky enough to have been around long enough not to want to do either of those things - and we always wanted to do our own team our way.

"It sounds very arrogant perhaps, but we have some history and we have some things that we want to bring into the sport that we think we can do well."

Windsor revealed that the pair had already secured a small equity partner to help funding, as they seek sponsorship backing for the outfit.

"The key...was not selling anything more than a very small stake in the team, so we set some unbelievably steep hills to climb, in the recession," he said. "We wanted to sell off a small part of the team and, as we sit here now, we have done that.

"We are two guys who can say we want to do an F1 team because we have the capital to do it, and to some extent the recession has helped us a little bit. For those out there who say where is the money? Where is the huge facility? Where is the money pouring out of the sky? Well, that isn't going to happen with USF1. We have always had a very different approach, and that approach will become visible as time goes on and this year unfolds."

Windsor added that both Formula One Management and the FIA had been informed of USF1's plans.

"I first told Bernie Ecclestone about this in Brazil 2006, and he was his usual specific self. He just said, 'great get it done'. So I said okay lets go and do it.

"He has kept in touch ever since and has always been supportive. Anything that we need he has tried to help us with. A good example is the DVD of the lovely edit he did of the 2008 Formula One season, which we have been using as part of our presentation to investors here in the United States.

"It's not for commercial use, but that is a typical example of the sort of help he has been giving us, and that is quite a big thing from FOM.

"The FIA equally have known about this in detail now for about five to six months, and instantly grasped the programme and instantly accepted the way we wanted to do it as, dare I say it, the poster child for how a Formula One team should be going into the next generation."

Anderson said he believed that the decision to base the team in Charlotte would not be a hindrance against F1 rivals' traditional home in Europe.

"Most of the technology from F1 comes from the US to begin with, and on the logistics side, next year less than half the races take place on the (European) continent so there is less reason for being there," he said. "The cost of doing business in the US is significantly cheaper than Europe and there are a lot of good people here."