USF1 considering Cosworth engine deal

Although team chiefs Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor said at the launch of their outfit in February that they would approach every manufacturer on the grid, it has now been revealed that a deal with Cosworth may actually suit it better than alignment with a car maker.

"The engine decision is part of the whole rebirth that F1 is going through right now," sporting director Windsor told AUTOSPORT.

"The Cosworth engine is certainly an attractive proposition. It is homologated, those guys were doing a great job with Red Bull Racing when Red Bull suddenly switched to Renault.

"A lot of people who were at Cosworth have left, but equally there are a lot of good people still there too. That is a really interesting thing for us. Apart from anything else, Cosworth is now owned by an American, Kevin Kalkhoven, and that is a nice little link for us as well.

"The idea of working with a small specialist company is kind of in-tune with the way we are operating as a race team as well."

When asked if Cosworth was Team USF1's preferred option, Windsor said: "I wouldn't say preferred, but it is definitely an option we are looking at very, very seriously."

Windsor also said that the team's official new name should be formalised in the next few weeks, with it needing to add the 'Team' moniker because of trademark implications in using the term 'F1'.

"The USF1 name was basically a place mark name that Ken [Anderson] came up with. It is a great name! It was a working title for a work in progress that we began four years ago.

"Like everybody, we know that 'F1' is a protected name, and we always wanted to do the correct thing. But until we were an existing operation there was no point in doing that because it was just a working title. As soon as we had a position publicly, and we were going to become a team, then we needed to sit down and see what the situation was.

"Ken had registered several domain names for that situation, so we immediately kept everything on ice with another domain name to keep it ticking over. The new name, which is not too far away from the original name, is due to be announced soon.

"When the entry is formalised, when the 2010 championship is announced by the FIA, that is when we will come on line with a team name and a few other really good announcements as well."