Murphy The Bear rumors the USF1 team is in trouble, which is pretty much what Bernie has been expecting all along. Of course, if you know anything about The Bear, you know to take what he says with very potent grains of salt.

 

I see in the three day testing session at Valencia, Fred had the top time by a full .5 sec.

As far as Mr. Bear goes, I saw photos of the chassis in the crunch test. Who is this mook?

 

^ Mook... lol! +1

Hey RaceTripper, where did you find this guy? I don't know where Murphy the Bear gets his dirt but it seems that this is nothing more than speculation (with just a few crumbs of truth to make it seem legit) or just outright ripe rumor mongering.

You're right RaceTripper in saying that you need to take the Bear with a grain (or maybe truckload ) of salt.

To me, Mr. Bear seems to be just another obscure internet purveyor of rumors and nothing more.

 

I got this survey by email:

http://www.lgf1racingfansurvey.com/

See if it will work for you. Warning, it's long and actually requires some thought. And don't let the power go off while you're working on it.

Don't ask me how I know...

My only complaint is that with all the questions about F1's technology, it doesn't give me any place to vent my displeasure with Bernie's active ANTI-technology decisions. Those I highly resent.

 

Took the survey. Got a chance to focus on driver skill and less on tech.

 

I was disappointed with that survey. Pick three words from this list that best describes....something. All the words are positive. WTF?!?!?!?

It was BS.

 

Maybe Stephen Colbert wrote the survey:

Do you consider F1 technologically advanced or really technologically advanced?

 

I think it was really more of a push poll. For one thing, it was conducted by an advertiser. Still, anything to get through to Bernie that we're not thrilled with 5 year old engines.

 

Gonna go out on a real long limb here:

Alonso 3rd WDC

 

Hi all!

Well it looks like the new Lotus team is up and running!

The car was recently shown to the public and they paid homage to Lotus' heritage with their livery... Very nice!

Colin Chapman and Jimmy Clark would be proud!

 

the lotus looks good. i think Gascoyne is a pretty good pick for a new team!

 

Gascoyne seems to do well as long as you lock him in a room, leave him along and not tell him what to do. If you violate those guidelines, he seems to get pissed easily. That's what happened at Toyota and Spyker/Force India.

Edit: He's a mushroom, keep him in the dark, feed him ******** and he''l grow and flourish.

If anything, I'm happy with some of the liveries this year. I love the yellow and black that Renault are going with. The Green and Gold for Lotus looks brilliant. And four different teams posting fastest times last week. I'm sure it'll shake out like it normally does with 2 strong teams and a darkhorse, but it's so hard to tell who that is right now.

 

yea toyota tried to hard to manage toyota f1 from the top. they should have let it run like an f1 team. it would have won races. they spent sooooo much money.

i was thinking on the way in to work this morning, while following a prius. what the last few years have been for toyota. pulling from f1. litterally tossing all of that money then all the brake/throttle drama now. sucks to be them. the other cars from the land of the rising sun should capitalize on this and take over

 

I'd hold off on that until we see how they run. Jimmy and Colin did not suffer fools easily.

 

Yes Gromit, you are right about that... I don't think that men of the caliber of Chapman & Clark would be proud of anything less than a winning car.

My statement was in reference to the livery... I didn't make myself clear. Sorry about that.

Frankly, I don't expect much from Lotus but then again who would have thought that Brawn GP would have ended up being the Constructor's Champion for 2009!

I wish Lotus luck in 2010!

Any news on the USF1 front as the clock she be a ticking?

Only 22 days left before the first GP of 2010 and still USF1 is mum about it's car and second driver. How long do Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson propose to keep us in the dark or tell us the truth that there is no USF1 team?

 

Not good news if you can call this news.

 

lets hope usf1 has a working car for the opener. they'll look pretty bad and make the u.s. (since they branded themselves u.s.) look dumber yet

 

I got a bad feeling about this...

Then again this news really doesn't surprise me... Anderson & Windsor have been very coy to the point of insulting anyone with a modicum of smarts.

I'd rather they'd been honest with the fans than try to hide their woes with all this cloak & dagger stuff:

Ken Anderson: In response to questions as to why there is no proof of a car yet, stating, "... we like to think of ourselves as a skunkworks operation (in reference to Lockheed's famous Skunkworks where super secret aircraft such as the U2 and Stealth fighter originate).The car is here and will be ready."

Peter Windsor: Responding that the prior silence surrounding the team had been deliberate, focusing on in-house organizational and other private details rather than public announcements. Speaking in regards to the politics of the sport he commented that "there seemed little or no point in adding to the situation from the perspective of a new team", and compared the team's heads-down time to new home construction, "[where you] don’t invite all your neighbours and family around to see it at least until you’ve got the living room almost done."

I realize that in the world of F1, deals are always made in secret to protect all the parties involved until the ink dries on the contracts but truly this sham being orchestrated by USF1 has been rather obvious to fans and pundits alike... why even Bernie the Troll has made some dire comments about USF1's future and for Bernie to speak out... well lets just say that he wouldn't opine on this if it were to cost him $$$$$, being the mercenary that he is.

So MM. Anderson & Windsor you need to come clean with your fanbase and the sport and quit leaving us dangling on the proverbial hook!

 

Speaking of Lotus......



"Lotus have been forced to abandon the second day of the third winter test in Jerez after Heikki Kovalainen knocked the front wing off their 2010 car.
The former McLaren driver slid off into the gravel and damaged the front wing as the wet weather continued in Spain.

Lotus technical director Mike Gascoyne said a new front wing would not arrive until the early hours of Friday.

It was Kovalainen's first run in the Lotus F1, who are taking part in their first test since rejoining the grid.

The Finn had completed around 30 laps for Lotus before his off and was bottom of the timesheets with a best of one minute, 33.554 seconds, five seconds off the pace of Williams' leader Rubens Barrichello.

You can't help a mistake, especially in such difficult weather conditions, everyone makes them.

Kovalainen said on his Twitter page: "Had a crash and damaged front wing, session over for us. My mistake. Friday we go again."

Gascoyne added on his Twitter page: "Slight off for Heikki. Knocked off the front wing. Spare on its way, but will not be here until 2am, so no more running.

"Starting to put the car back together. If we had a spare front wing would be out again today but have to wait until tomorrow."

The Malaysian-owned Lotus F1 team had a productive first day in Jerez on Wednesday with reserve driver Fairuz Fauzy completing over 70 laps, even though his best time was more than nine seconds off the pace."

 

Yes sir... Holding any kudos to Lotus for now... Gonna chalk it up to new car/new team/bad weather... That's my story and I'm sticking to it...

Hmm... what would Chapman and Clark say about this...

"You won't catch me driving a race car that I have built" - Colin Chapman

"At some stage of your development you may have to overstep your known capabilities.
I strongly urge you to pick that spot carefully" - Jimmy Clark

 

Is that Taps I hear sounding in the distance?

Well friends, it seems as if USF1 is in its final death throes... if not already dead and buried...



USF1 Appears Finished
by: Jonathan Ingram
RacinToday.com http://www.RacinToday.com
02/20/2010
Charlotte, NC



The race is on at USF1 to find an exit strategy to its failed bid to join the Formula One world championship. With the F1 season opener at Bahrain looming and pre-season testing drawing to a close, USF1 is out of money, has not completed its car and has yet to pick up its engines from Cosworth Engineering.

Instead of journeying to Northampton in England to pick up race engines, USF1 is more likely to begin negotiations with Formula One Management boss Bernie Ecclestone in London regarding the team’s obligations under the Concorde Agreement made between participating teams and F1’s sanctioning body, the FIA.

The last hope of any alternative route for USF1 disappeared on Friday, when the Campos Meta team announced new ownership and the departure of founder Adrian Campos. The new Campos majority owner Jose Ramon Carabante, formerly a minority stockholder, intends to find the money to take delivery of cars built for the team by Dallara in time to race at Bahrain.

Not even an influx of money will help USF1, according to an F1 insider familiar with the details of the team’s operations. “The team not only has a problem with not enough money,” he said. “There’s not enough time. Even if the Seventh Calvary came over the hill to rescue them, they wouldn’t be able to make the grid in Bahrain.”

The scenario sets up USF1 as the team to be replaced by Stefan GP. The Serbian-owned team has purchased the chassis originally intended for use this year by Toyota, which made a decision last fall to withdraw from F1. But the series is limited to the 13 remaining teams that signed the latest Concorde Agreement in June of 2009, meaning US F1 would have to cede ownership to Stefan GP in order for the Serbian team to compete.

A substantial fine awaits USF1 if it fails to honor its obligation under the Concorde to compete in the full F1 schedule. The team could make an appeal to the World Motorsports Council of the FIA to join the series after the opener in Bahrain. But a successful appeal would include a unanimous vote of the existing teams to allow USF1 to continue without racing and still pick up the $10 million in travel funds from the FIA paid to each team under the Concorde at the outset of the season.

With the Stefan GP team waiting in the wings and USF1’s own car stillborn, the prospect of a successful appeal are considered very slim or nil.


Oh the pain... the pain.

How long will we here in America have to suffer without a GP, a team, or an Amercian driver?

 

Now they are asking to miss the first four races...

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/artic...st-four-races/

Obviously, and sadly, their "sunkworks" idea is not panning out. I'm still hoping but I'm not expecting them to appear at all now.

 

I think their not getting an American driver right off killed their sponsorship. They promised an American driver, and didn't deliver. US sponsors aren't going to waste money if they don't think enough US racing fans will be exposed to their sponsorship.

 

Have we heard the last of USF1?


USF1 Mulls Over Options
Written by: SPEED Staff
SPEEDtv.com
02/21/2010


Three weeks before the Formula 1 season kicks off, it's clear that the two North Carolina-based USF1 cars will not be on the grid for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

But that doesn't meant the team won't race in 2010.

SPEEDtv.com has learned that the struggling start-up squad is busy working on a range of possible solutions, which could include:

• Acquiring an available car, such as the Dallara chassis built for the financially troubled Campos Meta team in Spain;

• Merging with another team;

• Pressing on with their own car and accepting penalties for missing races;

• As a last resort, withdrawing their entry and reapplying next year.

A New York Times article published Friday stated that USFI had asked the FIA for permission to miss the first four races of the year.

In a televised interview Sunday on SPEED Channel, Bob Varsha spoke with Nick Craw, chairman of the American delegation to the FIA and President of the FIA Senate. Craw told Varsha that USF1 merely asked for clarification of the rule, which is in conflict with the terms of the new Concorde Agreement signed by the teams. The new Concorde Agreement allows teams to miss up to three races per season.

Craw also told Varsha that the FIA will try to work with USF1 as it attempts to make the grid. Craw stressed that the United States is an important market for F1.

Calls to USF1 seeking comment were not returned.





The adventure continues...

 

WOW, the PR mavens at the Scuderia are on the attack...


F1: Ferrari Launches Bitter Attack On New Teams
Written by: GMM Newswire
02/23/2010

The famous Italian team is critical of former FIA president Max Mosley's low-cost vision of the sport, earlier mischievously suggesting the arrival of unknown names had earned the sport the new moniker 'Formula GP3'.

Referring to the two that have made their test track debuts, Virgin and Lotus, Ferrari said in a new and unprecedented attack that they are circulating at "much reduced pace".

Campos, according to Ferrari, has benefited from a cash injection from a "munificent white knight", even though the Spanish outfit might end up fulfilling "the role of loyal vassal".

In the report posted on its website, Ferrari implied that USF1 has "gone into hiding", but still has the "impudence to claim that everything is hunky-dory".

As for how to get into contact with Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson's team, Ferrari advised the media to call "Missing Persons".

The harshest vitriol was saved for Stefan GP, otherwise known as "the Serbian vultures" who "picked the bones of Toyota on its death bed".

In a reference to sacked McLaren designer Mike Coughlan, Ferrari said some of Stefan's staff have "a whiff of past scandals".

"This is the legacy of the holy war waged by the former FIA president," said Ferrari.

"In the meantime, we have lost two constructors along the way, in the shape of BMW and Toyota, while at Renault, there's not much left other than the name. Was it all worth it?" the report concluded.

Comments anyone?