multi21

Not encouraging. It's looking like this team will not make the 1st race of the year.

Our car is no copy, says US F1
20 January 2010


The brand-new US F1 team stresses that the design process of its first Formula 1 car will in no way feature a duplication technique; instead, the Charlotte-based team - which will also have an operational base in Spain for the European season - will be designing its challenger completely from scratch.

With US F1 being one of four new outfits on the grid this year, the Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor-formed team is keen to impress as soon as possible. 'F1 cars are small and we are fitting a lot of stuff into a very tight volume,' senior designer Scott Bennett wrote on the US F1 team website. 'We're doing a few things quite differently than they have been done in recent years.

I can't give specifics (yet) but we've looked at everything with a fresh perspective and come up with some different answers. We'll know whether they were the right or wrong answers soon enough, but our car certainly won't be a clone of anything else out there. And did you know that we're the only one of the four new teams designing our own gearbox...?'

With former debutant team Campos Meta plus Renault still yet to confirm their second drivers, US F1 is the only squad with no driver signed up to date.

boss351

Would have sounded more convincing if they had said "building" rather than "designing" at this stage.

Maybe the drivers are visiting Bank of America for a sponsorship deal.

Benton

What does that article have to do with the team making the first race?

Azikara

Doesn't sound convincing. Seems like they're overly ambitious...which is strange for someone so experienced. Why would you design a gearbox from scratch? The start up process on tooling, fabrication and then eventually testing to get a quality production part would most certainly increase the opportunity for failure and rework....and would the payoff (faster lap times?) be worth it?

Circuit Motorsports

They aren't exactly doing it themselves. It's outsourced to another company who is designing it. The guy has built F1 gearboxes before and his whole business is gearboxes.

multi21

Being a long time super fan of F1, you see how things progress year after year and the timing of things, particularly in the off season. Not having either driver signed given that testing is only a 1 1/2 weeks away is troubling.

Couple that with the fact they just received their engines last week and have decided to come up with a gearbox from scratch rather than use an existing one lead me to believe they will not made the grid in Bahrain.

Their drivers should be getting to know their mechanics, engineers (race and otherwise) and in a simulator right now. They should have reservations, hotels etc. for their tests in Spain or Barber.

The piece I posted about the gearbox is extremely telling. Besides the engine, it's perhaps the most important part of the car, not only in terms of drive, but the gearbox is also part of the suspension and bears a ton of the load. Producing a unit from scratch without EXTENSIVE testing puts you back several weeks if not months.

If you recall when McLaren/Ferrari were coming out with their titanium gearboxes, they had all sorts of problems with them and that was not a revolutionary design, per se.

Most new teams in F1 are purchased from teams that are selling out and have a factory, workers, etc. all in place from day one. Toyota started from scratch, invested more than anyone else and was a midpack runner at best over a 10 year period. USF1 is no Toyota.

Rumors are that USF1's first race may be in Spain in May -- which might not be a bad thing. The worse thing that could happen is that they push to make the first race and are 7 seconds off the pace.... or worse have a car that is unreliable. But at this point, they are way off the mark in terms of the calender.

Circuit Motorsports

The guy doing the gearbox has been on board since almost the beginning of the team. That was the plan all along. Knowing the guy he's not behind schedule either.

rickmdz

Peter Windsor is in Argentina today. He said: "I'm in Buenos Aires for my strong interest in having Pechito (J.M. Lopez) as a driver. He is not just one of those who seek a seat in our team but the driver that we want to have. My presence here certifies that. I hope the negotiations go well so we can make the announcement soon"
Peter and Pechito today in Buenos Aires

multi21

And he might not be behind schedule, Joe, but with a revolutionary gearbox, are they ready to test it out? I think that is the question.

I hope I'm wrong because IF and WHEN a US based F1 team is at the very least a contender, then it will start to get the attention of the casual Amercian race fan and make it more mainstream, at least here in America.

rickmdz

Here's a couple of interesting articles from Racecar engineer:

http://www.racecar-engineering.com/n...-revealed.html
http://www.racecar-engineering.com/n...-progress.html

They'll have a full article dedicated to USF1 team in March's issue

ltc

Does Pechito (J.M. Lopez) have an F1 Superlicense?
I'm assuming he is eligible for one, or USF1 is going to ask for another "Kimi exemption"?