The F1 hopefuls' race against time

Last week saw ten teams testing at Jerez, and with Lotus launching the T127 on Friday evening, the 2010 grid is gradually taking shape. There remain, though, two exceptions - namely US F1 and Campos Meta1 - from whom the silence has been absolutely deafening of late, and about whom one hears statements from various unrelated, yet equally adamant, sources that neither outfit will make the opening round in Bahrain on 14 March - which is, forget not, less than four weeks away.

In that off-beat way peculiar to Formula 1 it seems, despite the massive divide between the two teams, their ultimate destinies are, according to impeccable sources, linked beyond the simple facts that both are cash-strapped, hard-pressed time-wise and have each signed just one driver. Read on...

Taking US F1 first, those in the loop across the water suggest the car build is now so in arrears the team has not yet drawn its first engine from Cosworth. Yes, the team has a mock-up with which to run through basic fitting, but with the clock inexorably counting down, surely the time has come to crash-test, fire up and prove to the world that something approaching an F1 car exists within the 40,000 square-foot former Joe Gibbs Racing facility situated at 9900 Twin Lakes Parkway, Charlotte, NC.

Allegedly the team had a major sponsorship deal go pear-shaped in December, which led to delay after delay, for it is, after all, extremely challenging to build hi-tech cars when coffers are depleted. But when all is said and done, a crisis is a crisis, and, as Toyota has learned, companies are measured not by the size of the crisis but by their management thereof.

Sources, within and without US F1, have suggested that co-founders Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor could be on the verge of parting company, but when asked for comment Windsor said: "I am still with the team", while the latter responded with: "Peter is still here at the moment, not sure what he is up to, stay tuned."

However, clearly the bottom line is that US F1 faces missing (at least) the first three races - which folk who have access to the only valid version of the Concorde Agreement are adamant is permitted in terms of clauses contained within its articles - even if the team miraculously finds the funding to complete the car and get it and all ancillaries together and halfway across the world to China.

Complicating the situation is a release put out last week by the FIA, the sport's governing body, which states 'Any failure to take part, even for just one Championship event, would constitute an infringement both of the Concorde Agreement and the FIA Regulations' - patently at odds with what this column's sources maintain, and equally at odds with what the FIA initially, albeit tentatively, stated in a closed media conference, namely that that three races could be missed each season - as previously indicated by Bernie Ecclestone.

Apparently the FIA statement hinges on Article 13.7 of the 2010 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations, which states: 'If in the opinion of the F1 Commission a competitor fails to operate his team in a manner compatible with the standards of the Championship or in any way brings the Championship into disrepute, the FIA may (emphasis added) exclude such competitor from the Championship forthwith.'

Note the word 'may', which provides elastic interpretation, while the applicable clause in Concorde - said to be Article 9, paragraph 13.5 - is said to be cast in iron.

However, US F1 getting to Shanghai now seems a possibility so remote that YouTube founder and primary US F1 investor Chad Hurley last week sent a task team consisting of his Mr Fixit, Parris Mullins, formerly a Ferrari dealer in Silicon Valley, and Italian-born Guenther Steiner, the former Ford rally and Jaguar F1 technical director (who now operates a carbon-fibre shop in Charlotte) to Dallara in Parma to investigate the feasibility of purchasing the entire Campos Meta project, reportedly several million pounds in arrears, and reversing the hardware into US F1.

Adrian Campos © LAT

While it may be a case of throwing good money after bad, Hurley is believed to be facing the Devil's Alternative - writing off his original investment in US F1, or doubling his money in the hope of some return - and here the messages are equally mixed. One source suggests he is ready to yank the plug; another says he has got hooked on F1 and is in for the long haul, just with both eyes way wider open than was previously the case, and has allegedly advised Ecclestone accordingly.

Moving east across the Atlantic to Spain, it is no secret Adrian Campos has battled to raise a sufficiently large war chest to take his family name into F1 using Dallara-designed and -built chassis. He and compatriot and business associate Jose Ramon Carabante have approached potential saviour after potential saviour, with the last name publicly linked to the team being that of Tony Teixeira, the Portuguese South African mining and minerals magnate who lost a fortune backing the now-defunct A1GP series, and whose Ferrari-powered cars are due to be disposed of by public auction. This option now appears to have melted away...

While rumours persist a potential saviour is nigh, time is, as is the case with US F1, running out rapidly, and although Dallara's design is said to have passed obligatory crash tests, it is still nowhere near track ready and is far from engine/transmission ready. In fact, in the latest issue of the company's house journal, the last paragraph of GianPaulo Dallara's foreword tells it the way it was a month ago:

"And finally, F1. I can say with pride that we have done a good job in design and development, all safety tests have been passed and production has gone ahead. Unfortunately, factors outside our control are slowing the process down, but I am confident that we can find solutions so that our work is not lost."

Apparently the situation has not progressed since.

So, on the one hand we have a team without hardware, but an investor who wishes to remain involved in F1 for his own reasons despite having the tips of his fingers badly singed, while on the other we have an operation with production-ready, crash-tested chassis, but no cash.

In the middle sits Bernard Charles Ecclestone, who despite having said in Madonna di Campiglio a month ago that F1 needs just 10 teams, would dearly love at least 13, particularly when one bears stars and stripes on its monocoque. Then, sitting on F1's sidelines are Colin Kolles - former Midland/Spyker/Force India team boss - and Geoff Willis, who recently departed his post of technical director of title challengers Red Bull, having previously been with Honda and Williams.

Willis was seen wandering around with a notebook during last week's Jerez tests, and an observant snapper thoughtfully recorded the pages for posterity. Willis's To Do list:

Geoff Willis at Jerez © Sutton

Dallara preparations

Complete cars?

Spares

Fire up

Power up

Off car rigs

Heaters

FIA documents

Impact ... (tests?)

Kolles, too, has admitted to working on the Campos project, adding it was not specifically Campos-linked, but rather had to do 'with helping the start-up teams'. "I know what I am doing and who I am doing it for," he said when pressed. Ecclestone, anyone?

The Romanian German had been linked to a management role at grand prix hopeful Stefan GP, but principal Zoran Stefanovic recently told this column he and Kolles had not pursued their initial discussions, but that he and the former dentist maintained contact over matters of mutual interest.

(Readers may have recently noticed regular references to Stefan GP in this column, and not without reason: he calls and offers information, whereas the others featured here do not...)

So, it all fits together beautifully, subject to the will of some individuals directly involved - who ultimately may have little choice in the matter - while still leaving a grid slot open (FIA permitting) for Stefan Grand Prix, scheduled to complete Car 1 at Toyota's facility outside Cologne this week. In fact, so complete are the car's outer surfaces that they have been finished in Serbian red - a gentler shade than Maranello scarlet - due to the national support the team is receiving.

The team had two observers at Jerez last week - something neither Campos and US F1 had - while Stefan's pit equipment is on the water to Bahrain and Australia, with the plan being to forward the first shipment to Malaysia immediately after the Sakhir race, and the second to China. Cars are due to be flown to the circuits only once confirmation, if any, is received from the governing body.

But, it has not been plain sailing for Stefanovic and his team in Belgrade: scheduled to test at Portimao from 25-28 February ahead of shipping its cars, the team may not have rubber to do so, for, according to a Bridgestone spokesperson, "Bridgestone supplies F1 tyres only to those teams which are officially entered into the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship," clarifying with "Basically we are contracted to the FIA to supply tyres to those teams which are entered officially into the championship" - which Stefan GP is not (yet).

It is not, though, clear whether any clauses specifically prohibit Bridgestone from supplying F1-specification tyres to Stefan GP, although Bridgestone Motorsport confirmed that, after consultations with Japan, "[we] would not be willing to supply GP2 tyres either".

This despite Bridgestone making GP2 tyres available to Ferrari's Clienti Corse division for use by Felipe Massa on an F2007 during the Brazilian's recent recovery period. Possibly painting Stefan's ex-Toyotas in Steven - a shade of red similar to Bridgestone's primary colour - even if that hue be Serbia's national sporting colour - tipped the balance?

So, it seems, no testing for the only one of three newcomers capable of testing immediately and taking the start in Bahrain. Then, again, who knows: possibly Hurley/US F1 will cut a deal with Stefan rather than Campos/Dallara, or the FIA may allow delinquent teams to skip a race or three in return for a fine. The world of grand prix racing sure works in strange ways...