USF1 - My Part In Their Downfall
USF1 – My part in their downfall!
I’m sure the British readers amongst you will realise, that the title of this article paraphrases Spike Milligan’s autobiographical tale of his exploits in WW2 – “Hitler my part in his downfall”. The premise of which, hidden in the humour, was that as a member of the British army his actions had a small effect on the removal of the German dictator. Given that USF1 have openly said that the negative reaction of the press, especially the European press was responsible in part for their non-appearance on the grid, I suppose I should, as a member of the European F1 press corps, accept my responsibilities!
However as the inventor of the “famous” USF1 toaster, perhaps I am culpable.
Let me first say that from the outset I was all in favour of USF1. Peter Windsor is a friend of mine and we worked together on Sky’s F1 digital + service in the early part of the last decade. His vision, whilst optimistic seemed fine, and obviously good enough to convince the FIA that they had all the necessary ingredients to show up with 2 star spangled cars at the first race of 2010.
For those of you who don’t know me, one of my current roles is as “F1 Expert” on Midweek Motorsport, the weekly motorsport magazine show that is broadcast on Radio Le Mans (www.radiolemans.com) every Wednesday (and naturally podcasted as well!). The demographic for this show is interesting as having grown out of endurance racing it has a very large listenership in the US, and these guys were excited about the prospect of “their own” team, however things started going awry very quickly.
The first thing that seemed strange was the ridiculous amounts of press releases being issued by the team, covering everything from fanciful potential drivers - Kyle Busch for example – to milestones in their entry process –“USF1 pay fee to FIA” was one classic, but none of these releases detailed the things a team need to do to build a car. The PR was particularly silly in relation to drivers. They insisted they would be an all American team when it was obvious to all, that US drivers fell into two groups. The eminently qualified who would never drive for them –(Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Danica Patrick etc) or the young guns that were nowhere near ready for “the big show” (Alex Rossi, Jonathan Summerton Connor Daly etc).
The amazing amount of paff emanating from Charlotte was ripe for parody so with a colleague of mine, Declan Brennan, and armed with a clunky text to speech animation program we put together a cartoon entitled USF1 the series – Day 1, and stuck it up on You Tube (and it’s still there!) This was only to amuse ourselves and our friends, and was just a bit of gentle ribbing. It was pretty popular so we made another. Following a ill advised feature on SPEED TV showing Steve Matchett being shown round an obviously empty factory by Peter Windsor , we produced another where we for comedic purposes only, imagined that instead of producing a car they were in fact producing Toasters, the series took off and there are now 12 or 13 episodes.
A very funny thing happened in early December, we’d produced 4 or 5 of the sketches and we started to get unsolicited e-mails from guys inside the factory, firstly telling us how much they liked the series (which was nice!) and more surprisingly outlining how shambolic things really were, for example something we couldn’t say at the time was that the first chassis buck had to be discarded because they had forgotten to factor in the steering rack and couldn’t get it to fit! The lack of activity was also communicated to us. We had a couple of American drivers (and a European) outline to us the financial demands the team was putting upon anyone who wanted to drive for them ($8 million – though apparently Robert Doornbos was offered the ride for $5M).
It fast became apparent that the whole project was unravelling, but suddenly, just after announcing all American boy Jose Maria Lopez was their first driver, it went quiet. Nothing.
Suddenly there was talk that the team, who had no F1 car to build, were, in a fantastic display of gallows humour, actually making the USF1 Toaster! We received further information from inside the team and it was apparent by the end of January that not only would the team not make Bahrain but it wouldn’t ever make a car.
The rest is well documented, as the stricken ship lurched from one problem to the next before finally sinking at the beginning of March.
The blame game immediately started and in more than one American publication, the European media was blamed, one article went as far as to explicitly name our cartoon series as responsible for undermining sponsor confidence in the team. Whilst this panders to one’s ego, it is also rubbish. The team floundered because it was built on hot air. I can’t help but feel that Peter and Ken watched “Field of Dreams” once too often, not realising it was a fantasy. “If you build it they will come” is a nice strap line, but the key word is “build”, not issue endless press releases, then backtrack on the original concept and then go into hiding.
The only people responsible for the debacle that was USF1 are Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson. I had no part in their downfall and neither did anyone else.
Nick Daman
14 Comments
2010-03-15
17:10:05
This article pulls no punches but I'd love to know who wrote it.
2010-03-15
21:03:11
I think the whole concept of USF1 was deeply flawed from the outset. The Americans just don't get formula 1. F1 can not sustain a race in America, much less a team.
2010-03-16
01:13:55
Tell us more, you must have just a little bit more insight that you could let us know? Some of the stories from the"insiders" paint a pretty sad state of affairs at USF1, someday the whole story will come out. Thanks for giving a glimpse into what really happened, since USF1 certainly isn't saying much.....
2010-03-16
07:32:16
Hmm, yes I wondered why Peter Windsor had suddenly disappered from the '"on the spot" commentary position on Australia's GP telecasts and replaced with James Allen. I remember him going on about the USF1 team in last year's broadcasts.
2010-03-16
09:50:30
It was written by Nick Daman (broadcaster and journalist)
2010-03-16
13:07:25
To address the comment made, that the US "doesn't get F1" or "sustain" a race....
Wait. First VERY INTERESTING article.
OK to address the comment that the US does not get F1. Correct most of America has no interest in F1 because it has NO presence here! There IS a fan base! INDY would put 100,000+ in the seats at each race! Similar numbers to Montreal. But F1 expects a track or in reality a Government to pay millions of dollars to "Bernie" to just have the right to have a race. With NO long term commitment by F1to continue at that track. So in turn there is no race in the US. That begets no TV coverage. That begets no general interest.
Let us not forget TV numbers are what matter most to Bernie! As to the comment that we can't maintain a team. I also beg to differ. Yes USF1 failed. They did so on there own! Poor planning, poor execution.... But that was due to the parties involved. We are NOT talking R. Penske, C. Ganassi here. So the parties involved at the top had NO experience in running a World Class racing team. The reason they don't?
There is no promise on return on investment in F1 So put the blame where it belongs!
Directly on the shoulders of Anderson, and Windsor.
2010-03-16
14:58:35
Ah, the dreamy dreams of Peter Windsor, What USF1 needed was a young Dan Gurney.
2010-03-17
17:59:17
Something to to do with financial records? Well, maybe F1 is too late to the US. If F1 wanted American dollars (fans) they should have moved in when IndyCar and ChampCar were at odds with eachother. Now unified, IndyCar moved to block any interest in F1 when they announced 8 road track events last year opting to move away from ovals. Now, IndyCar's smaller Amercian road courses and 20+ cars is fun to watch. Its cheaper to participate and its not on cable, but national free TV. IZOD sponsored the whole IndyCar circuit for 2010. Patron sponsored the whole American Le Mans series. Even the Bacardi family started into racing sponsorship. American racing is growing this year, without F1. F1 is high technology but in todays economics it does make sense to pay alot for your fun.
2010-03-19
13:15:38
What a nice piece of ficton. The team lost a secondary team sponsor in January which delayed the project scheduled because the resources could not be funded. It's that simple.
Keep on kicking us while we are down.
2010-03-20
00:11:43
@ Ade Stewart -
Do you have the statistics to prove your point and are you a marketing expert?
Otherwise, I will dismiss your ignorant comment as more European tribalism and snobbery emanating from your side of the pond. Because of its veracity, I can only guess that it is fear based.
What are you guys so afraid of?
2010-03-20
01:06:15
I'm confused by the level of animosity so many seem to have for Peter and Ken. Many are making this venture out to be something like opening a lemonade stand. Wasn't this always going to be extremely difficult, with a high likelihood of failure?
I still hope to see US F1 on the grid. Think of the naysayers we have to prove wrong!
Also, I'm an American, and I've loved F1 for ~25 years.
2010-03-20
02:29:37
"The Americans just don't get formula 1."
Oh we get it, we just only get formula 1 at 5AM. ;-)
Seriously, there isn't anything inherent that makes a US based team impossible. This simply wasn't the way to do it.
2010-03-20
05:50:08
@Larry. What do you mean by 'us'.
Could you please tell me of any sponsors? Could you tell me what sponsors SHOULD do when the promised car progress is misrepresented and actually zero?
2010-03-20
15:42:04
I have a hard time giving credibility to anyone who spoofs people with youtube cartoons and has no acquaintance with the rules of punctuation.