Cost Cuts Are Key To U.S. F1 Team

Windsor and Anderson provided few financial details other than saying they had sold a small stake and had the capital to proceed.

A successful U.S. Formula One team would be welcomed by everyone in the sport but it will only be a realistic prospect if the costs of competing are slashed for 2010.

Some might consider it madness to try to get a new team off the ground at a time when belts are being tightened across corporate America and when even manufacturer teams are struggling to attract backers and fighting for survival.

Despite that, USF1 team principal Ken Anderson and his sporting director Peter Windsor, a journalist and former Williams team manager, sounded upbeat on Tuesday when they unveiled their bold project.

The plan is to set up a Charlotte, North Carolina-based team of more than 100 people and hire two American drivers to take on the likes of Ferrari and McLaren from outside the European heartland in 2010.

Windsor said Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone was supportive while the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) had also been encouraging.

So too was America's last and only surviving world champion Mario Andretti: "This is the best news I could have hoped for as a Formula One fan and an absolute supporter. It's got to be great news for Formula One, period," he told Speed TV.

McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh said a U.S. based team would be "an excellent vehicle via which all Formula One stakeholders could make important promotional and commercial inroads into what remains the world's biggest economy.

"For that reason alone, we at McLaren-Mercedes applaud Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson's efforts," he told the autosport.com website.

HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT

Finding the funding will be USF1's biggest immediate challenge. Honda-backed Super Aguri were the last new team to enter Formula One in 2006 and they folded due to lack of funding in April 2008.

The commercial environment has only become more hostile since then. There are also no North American races on the calendar, although Ecclestone and the teams are working on rectifying that, or drivers competing.

"It's tough out there at the moment from a sponsorship-acquisition point of view," said Whitmarsh.

"It won't therefore be easy for Peter and Ken... what's beyond doubt though is that such a project could only be feasible as a result of the recent cost-cutting programme spearheaded by the FIA and FOTA."

When Toyota came in as an all-new team from the ground up in 2002, they had to post a $48 million deposit. That no longer applies, with at least two and possibly three vacant team slots on the starting grid already.

The big ticket items are already coming down, with the Formula One Teams Association promising independent teams an engine and gearbox package for 6.5 million euros ($8.33 million) a season from 2010 rather than some 20-30 million in the past.

If FIA president Max Mosley has his way, teams might be able to compete for 50 million euros from next year but that will involve some fundamental rule changes yet to be agreed.

That still leaves any would-be newcomers facing an annual budget of around $64 million while competing with hungry rivals for a dwindling supply of sponsorship dollars.

Former champions Renault face a big hole in their budget when title sponsor ING depart at the end of the year while Honda's team, if they survive in a new guise, are likely to be in urgent need of sponsors to stay afloat.

DIFFERENT APPROACH

Windsor and Anderson provided few financial details other than saying they had sold a small stake and had the capital to proceed.

"The recession has actually helped us out a little," declared Windsor. "For those out there that say 'Where's all the money? Where's the huge facility? Where's the money pouring out of the sky?...that isn't going to happen with USF1.

"We've always had a very different approach and that approach will become visible as time goes on and as this year unfolds."

Anderson added that much of the technology in Formula One came from the United States, there was a pool of local expertise from Charlotte being so closely associated with NASCAR and the cost of doing business in America was cheaper than in Europe.