WHB Porsche

Rossi shows some serious potential - qualified 5th in his first GP2 outing. I see him as the near-term future of "US" F1. The team should be sponsoring him now.

Bryan Watts

What interest would BMW have in funding a driver in a F1 car they did not build or have any involvement in?

multi21

Alexander Rossi is BMW's "Baby". They groomed him, gave him an F1 test when he won the Formula BMW America's series, have helped him after the F-BMW series was terminated by Munich and is an American, BMW's largest market.

dp35

I agree that Rossi is a good candidate, but IMO John Edwards and Jonathan Summerton are closer to being ready. Of course, that could all change in 2010.

I heard from a not so reliable source that USF1 is indeed helping Rossi now. I hope that's true because major financial assistance is necessary if we're ever going to have an American F1 driver again.

Bryan Watts

Fine...but why would they pay to put him in a F1 seat that brings them absolutely no benefit when they could pay to put him the the seat of one of their LeMans cars?

multi21

IMO, Rossi was BMW's future if they had kept their F1 effort. I agree that putting him in a chassis that is not BMW with a Cosworth engine is not the BMW way, but I also believe he will be in a Le Mans racer and other BMW efforts sooner rather than later.

dp35

Its not quite March 12th, but Racecar Engineering's next issue is now online, including a story about USF1, and the drawings below. You can read the article in the online version of the magazine here (be careful, you're only allowed to zoom in 3 times). I read it, and didn't learn anything new.




High res drawing here.

theporscheguy

When USF1 entered into F1 the premise was that budgets would be put in place to reduce the overall costs. That "may" happen in years to come if the old guard agree.
In reading Peters latest comments it appears as if USF1 certainly have some challenges to overcome. Peter seems intent on making to the first race and I for one would like them to succeed.

brendo

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20100208/F1/100209925

ltc

The harsh reality of business in F1...

NaroEscape

In other words "if it's something that can put money into King Bernie's pocket right now, it gets top billing, and all others that can't get kicked to the curb"

Ray S

Well that certainly doesn't sound good.

race911

Can't go through 9 pages now, but was this previously posted? Was on another local list.

http://forum.grandprix.com/viewtopic...10844&p=462724 about the sixth comment down quotes this from yet another forum (linked on the bottom of this quote).

CompositeKen wrote:It got hot in the kitchen for a while because of my posts, but the situation is now so chaotic and the lying taking place borders on complete fraud.

The car is easily 2 months away from being complete--and thats if they had the money and manpower to complete it and they gave decision making to the appropriate people.
Ken couldn't make payroll at the end of January and finally paid everyone 1/2 of what they were owed this past Monday, the 2nd half is promised this Monday--I'm not holding my breath. About 2/3rds of staff are showing up semi-regularly…who can blame them..there is little to work on.

Everything is hand to mouth -- all of the suppliers are on COD terms if they will supply at all. We haven't seen a Cosworth because they still owe 2.5M euros for them. We have no materials to turn into parts--but assumes that we'd have drawings to produce parts from Anderson Jr….another complete incompetent that barely got his High School diploma!

The boys in the carbon shop don't have the drawings or the tooling they need to produce the tub, let alone the entire car. The tub alone is weeks away from being able to send for FIA testing. At least they don't have to worry about making the suspension pieces--they are all going to be crafted from steel! No wheels, tires or brakes are in the shop, the transmission hasn't been seen either.

Poor Pechito…he shows up yesterday and there is no tub for him to sit in or to get a seat fitting in. He's told--"thats what happens when the money comes in late"

Like it's his fault…Peter and Ken are perhaps the worst managers F1 has ever seen. Peter and Ken convince themselves that they are brilliant businessmen, when they don't understand the basics of an org chart, chain of command, delegation of responsibility..not a single person knows their role, responsibility or job function and if they are--they aren't allowed to do it. The basics of management require that in order to make people accountable, they must have the authority and the financial ability to make decisions in their area of responsibility---Ken will have none of that!.

Ken makes every decision himself despite being surrounded by real F1 engineering, production and marketing & communications experts that would do a much better job if left to do it. When challenged on any decision or direction, your job is usually threatened or he leaves for Starbucks to avoid the confrontation. We were all told the team had 3 years funding and Ken professed he wanted to be, "the dumbest guy in the room", nothing could be further from the truth…the whole adventure has been built on one lie after another and tightly controlled by Ken and his flavor-of-the-day believers.

When he can't make payroll…he goes to Daytona to try and drum up money from unsuspecting gentleman racers who think they are "investing" in something…the dream has turned into a con job.

We think Bernie is on to them and Hurley must be at this point too. Any reasonable person could see how mis-managed the whole operation is.

Its all so sad--the opportunity lost, the dream investor scammed….. dream to nightmare due to extreme mismanagement and the egos of K & P.

If the cancer were removed, real management and investment installed-we could make a go of it--but not until Spain……at the earliest.

I can't wait to see what kind witch hunt transpires from this post! Screw them--getting the truth out will hopefully create some transparency to their scheme.

Others at the shop are talking too http://www.motorsportforums.com/forums/ ... 28&page=12

Ray S

There are some pretty pictures in here;

http://www.zinio.com/reader.jsp?issu...&o=int&prev=si

But on the whole is sounds really bad.....

Larry Herman

Wow, if only some of that is right, USF1 is in deep doggie doo-doo.