An American F1 team?

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Ardius
If the team was open to any drivers available, who would people think are more likely to get the seats? The Europeans, South Americans & Asians or the North Americans?
The talent is there from all 4 regions, but would it make more sense for the team to pick up drivers who already have experience such as test drivers for current teams and possibly-unemployed drivers (e.g. Button/Barrichello/Sato) or to pick up an all-American team experienced in IndyCars/Champ cars?

I would have said it would make more sense to pick up 2 drivers from either current teams or go talent searching in GP2 or Formula Nippon then use an American driver as a test driver or as a 2nd driver to give them some experience before fielding a full-on American team with little or no experience of F1 or its circuits.
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I would much rather have a few experienced open-wheeled Americans get behind the wheel of a 2010-spec car and start running it now. Even a makeshift car will allow driver development and the engineering development to start asap. But, History has taught us all how usefull previous open-wheeled series skills are in an F1 car. So, USF1 needs them to be racing an F1 car now.
 
Hyst
I couldn't take any F1 team signing Danica Patrick (at the moment, she's still young) seriously, but particularly if it's named after the country it's based in.
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She does not have the automatic credentials for a Superlicence (relevant example: IndyCar top 6 in final standings or an Indy 500 win). But a team would have to allow her do 300 kilometers of testing in order to get her into F1.
 
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mu22stang
I would much rather have a few experienced open-wheeled Americans get behind the wheel of a 2010-spec car and start running it now. Even a makeshift car will allow driver development and the engineering development to start asap. But, History has taught us all how usefull previous open-wheeled series skills are in an F1 car. So, USF1 needs them to be racing an F1 car now.
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Well, obviously it would be a good idea to start getting some drivers experienced with the rules and machinery, however, I think it would be more wise for this team to employ a current F1 driver to give some better input on where to go with the car.
I also don't see why the drivers have to be Americans themselves, Ferrari hasn't had an Italian driver for a long time and they haven't needed it.

Sure, an all-American team would help gain the fanbase, but theres a point where you're sacraficing how well the team will do. I would have thought Americans would be more interested in a winning American team that has foreign drivers rather than a backender team with all-American drivers. Not implying US drivers are crap, just that it shouldn't be the primary objective when making driver choices, they should be picking experienced drivers regardless of nationality to start the team up, then they can worry about training up some "pure" US drivers.

I think the US and Canadian GPs need to return first though before North America gets interested, regardless of if theres an American team.
 
@ Ardius - Yeah, it's more of a pipe dream than anything. I'm hopeful of the whole thing, but the motorsport fanbase in the US is a tricky one. NASCAR/IRL/CART keeps everyone so satisfied they don't bother to look anywhere else. I feel an all American team is the only perscription for this. But, whether or not everyone else in the States is on board, I'm pretty stoked about the whole thing.
 
mu22stang
USF1 launches on SpeedTV February 24th
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Interesting, coupled with the rumour that HondaF1 is making an announcement soon makes it sound more plausible that they successfully bought them perhaps? I wouldn't be surprised if so.

Edit:
Oh, and they may actually be basing themselves in Europe it seems:
http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/090212120239.shtml
Perhaps this team will not be the epic failure some people may have thought, they at least seem to realise basing themselves in the US is a horrible idea.
 
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I don't think this has anything to do with the ex-Honda team. They already have a base of operations. It would be pointless going to the expense of making a new one.

I think it's a brand new team.

No. I hope it's a brand new team. I want more cars on the track.
 
Tired Tyres
No. I hope it's a brand new team. I want more cars on the track.
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It may be more economically viable to simply buy out the remains of Honda. However, Honda need a buyer before March in order to make the grid, and US-F1 have no plans to line up in Melbourne until next season. Besides, if they purchased the Honda outfit, they'd run the risk of another MasterCar-Lola fiasco, and I think something like that would kill the potential for an American Formula One team for a very long time.
 
Look out, apparently Danica's now "officially" on the short list:
Patrick eyed for new American F1 team

Nothing against Danica personally, but hopefully this is just a ruse to begin drumming up knowledge of, and interest in, the team. Oh and the logo needs some serious work as well. Also the name is just a little too similar to the defunct USFL, their logo isn't much to shout about either but at least it is not completely meh.
USFL_logo.gif
 
i really doubt danica would even do well in testing a F1 car. sure shes an ok driver but what shes good at is being a female in motor sports and bring in publicity not actually being the best. but then again F1 a whole different breed. theres some people who are really amazing drivers in F1 but cant do well in other styles and vise versa. maybe what shes really good at and nobody knows it is F1........ok i got my good laugh for the day.
 
It could be that Danica's name is being thown about to draw a little more attention to the project. There have been attempts to get an American F1 team going in the past, and none of them have amounted to anything, so there's naturally going to be skeptics in the audience. Plus, given that Danica is both female and attractive, she's probably a drawcard for Indycar in terms of publicity. By implying that she may defect to another open-wheel formula, fans of Danica will follow her transition. Even if she doesn't make the move, people will be watching US-F1 because of the potential for her to be there. Evidently whoever suggested Patrick's name is hoping that in reeling in attention from her fans, US-F1 will be able to establish a fanbase out of interested people who only really paid attention to it because Danica Patrick was associated with the team.

It's what I'd do.
 
I didn't watch any IRL racing last year but Danica had issues with road courses the year before. Marco Andretti is the only real candidate I can think of, but he doesn't have any F1 experience so how's he supposed to develop the car?
 
Tired Tyres
I didn't watch any IRL racing last year but Danica had issues with road courses the year before. Marco Andretti is the only real candidate I can think of, but he doesn't have any F1 experience so how's he supposed to develop the car?
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Well we can all see how very well Andretti is excelling in A1GP...

Pick up Sato for experience, and Rahal for the American driver.
 
Bleached
Well we can all see how very well Andretti is excelling in A1GP...

Pick up Sato for experience, and Rahal for the American driver.
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Well I think we can all agree that this team has seriously damaged chances if they don't attempt to pick up a current F1 driver or at least a fair amount of experienced staff.
 
Ardius
Well I think we can all agree that this team has seriously damaged chances if they don't attempt to pick up a current F1 driver or at least a fair amount of experienced staff.
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AGREED , nice point Ardius
 
Ardius
Well, obviously it would be a good idea to start getting some drivers experienced with the rules and machinery, however, I think it would be more wise for this team to employ a current F1 driver to give some better input on where to go with the car.
I also don't see why the drivers have to be Americans themselves, Ferrari hasn't had an Italian driver for a long time and they haven't needed it.

Sure, an all-American team would help gain the fanbase, but theres a point where you're sacraficing how well the team will do. I would have thought Americans would be more interested in a winning American team that has foreign drivers rather than a backender team with all-American drivers. Not implying US drivers are crap, just that it shouldn't be the primary objective when making driver choices, they should be picking experienced drivers regardless of nationality to start the team up, then they can worry about training up some "pure" US drivers.

I think the US and Canadian GPs need to return first though before North America gets interested, regardless of if theres an American team.
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You make good points here.

They are better off at putting proven drivers into the car at first just to try and get some decent results.

IF USF1 can prove that it will stay around and is not a 1 or 2 season thing then the best young American openwheel drivers won't dart to NASCAR at the earliest chance.

I have to wonder if American openwheel racing never split would Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart or other talented openwheel drivers have picked F1 over NASCAR. I think they would have stayed in openwheel racing until they got their shot at F1 if the split never happened. There's really no doubt in my mind a Jeff Gordon could have had a long successful career in F1.

Right now the only major openwheel racing series in America is the IRL, which is 70% ovals with easy to drive, simple cars. Certainly not a training ground for Formula 1.

Right now there is alot of talented American drivers who drive great on road courses, but the problem is the IRL Champion is only making as much money as guys who finish 40th in NASCAR points so everyone is jumping ship for NASCAR because of money

Until the IRL gets its act together by adding more road courses to the schedule and introducing a faster, more advanced car, there may not be a truly ready American driver in F1 for quite some time.

Oh, and btw Scott Speed is not the best American road racer, not by far. How he ended up in F1 I don't know.
 
Metar
*funny F1*
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Looks like the perfect USA F1 car:

Gold rims: check.
Gold exhausts: check.
Gold truck grill: check.
USA flag: check.
Double white stripes: check.
Fuzzy dice: WHERE ARE THE FUZZY DICE?
 
I watched as the timer clicked down to 00.00.00.00 and 1 second later its 00.00.59.59:lol: stupid extra hour delay
 
Alex.
I watched as the timer clicked down to 00.00.00.00 and 1 second later its 00.00.59.59:lol: stupid extra hour delay
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I went on the website earlier today and it did the exact same thing. USF1 owe me 3 minutes of my life.
 
The timer probably had some relation to our computers time settings showing us a incorrect timer, I think it is supposed to reach zero when the press conference begins at 12 US ET.


I hope the team does a better job with racing then the way it handled the countdown.
 

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