07/03/2010
FEATURE BY MIKE LAWRENCE
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For some time, correspondents have asked me for my views on USF1, and I have replied that were I setting up an F1 team, I might find a place for Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson, but neither would be a top position.
This was private correspondence between friends. I never thought that USF1 would amount to anything, but I respect people's aspirations and did not want to harm the project. I thought that Bernie was wrong to cast doubt on USF1 last December because, while I thought he was correct, I thought his position should have elevated him above comment.
I have no power, except the power of argument, but Bernie wields real power.
USF1 has sent its remaining workforce home on unpaid leave. Meanwhile, the principals of the team are in denial.
Last year, all Formula One factories closed for a month to give the staff a break. Windsor complained about this, citing Good Ole American Can-Do. This attitude was stressed in the videos the team made and Windsor called it a 'skunk works'. As I recall, Lockheed did manage to complete aircraft and got them to fly.
Do you think that Prodrive or Lola would have failed to make a car? Manor, now Virgin, did it and that was a massive leap for them. Lotus began from scratch, having only been given an entry in September, and they were at the tests in Spain. Virgin, Campos (Hispania) and USF1 were all notified that their bids had been successful on the same day. They faced the same political aggravation over FOTA and a possible breakaway series which Ken Anderson is now blaming for the no-show.
Campos/Hispania took the sensible decision to subcontract the design and build of their car to Dallara. That meant they had to recruit fewer personnel and if you are going to build single-seaters, you locate to Northern Italy or Southern England. It is not that the locals are supernaturally gifted, but bright engineers from all over the world are attracted to companies who operate there.
Just as Toyota knew well before the story broke that they had problems, I guess that USF1 knew that it was in the doo-doo four or five months ago, perhaps longer. There is a timetable for a new car and when it was not being met, and not being met by a significant degree, you can imagine that morale plummeted.
A nosecone passed the FIA's crash test so I guess that was something.
Videos released by the team show a lot of work space being occupied by not much. When you enter the McLaren Technical Centre, you are amazed by the size, but you soon realise that it is all used.
Maybe Pete and Ken thought the wool could be pulled over the eyes of some employees. USF1 is based in Charlotte, NC, home to many NASCAR teams, so the excuse that Formula One is different to NASCAR may have worked, but only for a week or two.
In fact, NASCAR is no different to F1 in terms of professionalism. If personnel had not twigged that there were big problems, they would have done so when people were laid off. If you are behind, you hire, you do not shed.
Provided that you have the cash, which Windsor and Anderson claimed they had, making an F1 car is not that difficult, the hard bit is making a competitive F1 car. You get your engines from Cosworth, brakes from Brembo, transmissions from Xtrac, tyres from Bridgestone, and so on. Any number of designers can pen a safe, competetent, monocoque. The big money goes on the aerodynamic package and electronics.
Apparently, a key sponsor failed to cough up money in mid-January, but the writing was on the wall long before then,
Even while USF1 was running on hype, it apparently signed James Rossiter, and certainly signed Jose Lopez, who each pledged eight million dollars. If their agreement was typical, they would have paid an initial ten per-cent, with a large chunk arriving before the first race and instalments thereafter throughout the season.
This contrasts to the boasts when the team was first established, when almost every day some new driver was being linked to the project. Danica Patrick even had to issue a denial although none of us thought she was a contender, she being a girl. Women cannot do Formula One, not having the upper body strength.
Come to think of it, women cannot multi-task either. The idea that they can was dreamed up by some mischievous academics over a few drinks one night. Stand behind a woman in a supermarket check-out and you will see that it always surprises them that they actually have to pay. They never, ever, have cash or card ready, bless them.
When it comes to complicated issues, like Feminism, I find it best to tell them not to worry their pretty little heads, we chaps will look after them.
USF1 was going to be all about American talent and some of us hoped for a second Dan Gurney, Phil Hill or Mario Andretti. We did not expect an Argentine stock car driver.
Jose Lopez has said that money has been paid. This leads one to consider all manner of things, like what was guaranteed in his contract and whether the contract was signed, and the deposit accepted, in the knowledge that USF1 was unlikely to be able to deliver unless it got a special dispensation to miss four races, or replaced the key sponsor who backed out.
It is still not clear that a team may miss three races, Bernie says one thing, the FIA says another. Even if it is possible to miss three races, to miss four would make a mockery of the rules. A rule is a rule, or it is not.
The Lopez camp has made all kinds of accusations, serious accusations, against USF1. Argentine government money was involved and I would not want to mess with any government since they tend to have resources beyond the reach of most of us.
I have suggested that the FIA due diligence people should have had a look at the CVs of Windsor and Anderson. When Peter returned to England, from Oz., in the late 1970s, he breathed fresh air into British motor racing journalism, just like America's Pete Lyons. A difference is that I am chuffed to bits that I contribute a column to the American magazine, 'Vintage Racecar', so I can claim Pete Lyons as a colleague.
Windsor held several senior positions in F1 and, in 1989, believed that he owned a share in the Brabham team.
On one of the fora (note to the Editor, there is more than one forum), 'easy rider' has alluded an incident and it might be as well to clear up the matter.
Mike Earle and Joe Chamberlain, founders of Onyx GP, were brought in to save Brabham in 1989. They pencilled in an engine deal and sponsors, the sticking point was Peter Windsor, who believed he owned at least part of the team.
It is believed that he had borrowed money against his supposed share of Brabham, but had not gone to a High Street bank. He had repayments to make and his creditor was not one who sent polite letters. Windsor desperately needed cash, and quickly. There was none on the table, but he was offered a well-paid job title, a Porsche 911 as a company car, and was told that he need not even have to come to work. This was not acceptable, he needed immediate cash.
He could choose whatever title he wanted to get his FIA pass, swan around in a Porsche and not come into work. Dream job, I'd say.
A British national newspaper, The Daily Mail, carried a story which said that as Windsor was getting into his car one evening after work at Williams, a van drove up, large men grabbed him and bundled him into the back of a van. Mechanics ran out to remonstrate, but held back when someone wielded what appeared to be a firearm.
The van drove to a quiet place, one of the debt collectors driving Windsor's BMW behind. It appears they were enthusiasts for baseball, which is unusual in Sarff Lunnen. They had brought the bats, but forgot the ball, so they improvised. 'Nothing personal, Mr Windsor, just doing our jobs.'
Windsor did not report the incident to the police.
Some of us believe that we know the identity of Windsor's creditor. If we are right, then I can record that he was later gaoled for fraud on a massive scale. The company (there was a company) was noted for buying Lamborghinis for the directors.
The whole story was widely known within motor racing. When I say, 'widely known'. I exclude the due diligence experts of the FIA. Apparently, they gaze at the moon with soppy smiles on their faces and fingers in their anuses.
After an episode like the above, there has to be questions over Peter Windsor's financial acumen. Not even RBS, under Fred Goodwin, operated with heavies.
Ken Anderson was once a near neighbour of mine because he was involved in Penske shock absorbers, Onyx GP and G-Force, all of which are local. The highlight of his career was that, briefly, he was Technical Director at Ligier in 1988. Ligier did not win a single WC point that year, though Rial (remember Rial?) scored three and Minardi scored one.
More than twenty years ago, Ken Anderson left Ligier with the JS33 on the stocks and Ligier scored three points in 1989, the same as Rial (remember Rial?)
Three World Championship points more than twenty years ago, Ken Anderson has never given Ross Brawn sleepless nights. He was not likely to become a significant F1 designer after a lay-off of half his working life.
It is just as well that I know that the FIA is beyond all reproach, morally and ethically, otherwise I may have sniffed a bad odour.
American enthusiasts have been short-changed, yet again. Single-seater racing is not huge in the States, but it has a following as I know from my mail box. I get a lot of very well-informed correspondence from across The Pond.
At Indianapolis in 2000, there was a gate of 175,000 for the Grand Prix and many American fans had travelled huge distances to be there. Bernie set the tone for F1's relationship with America when he announced that there was not a decent hotel in Indiana, so he booked rooms in Chicago. That was his prerogative, but he did not have to make a point about it in public. That was sheer bad manners and an insult to the Speedway which really does know how to look after visitors.
Having been hard on the Due Diligence experts, it turns out that they may have been right about Team Steve. It is alleged in the mainstream German press that the parent company, AMCO, has told a few porkies about its involvement in the aerospace industry.
I thought that the idea of Serbs In Space was about as likely as a Norwegian palm oil industry. Team Steve is alleged to have exaggerated its CV. I have an ex-wife who acquired a BA from London University from thin air. The qualification was a fiction, but she was still very good at what she did, which included a senior position at a college and becoming a senior examiner for an exam board.
For more than twenty years, I was a full-time teacher and never once had to produce a diploma, though I could have done.
Toyota accepted Team Steve at face value and one must assume that money has changed hands. Apparently, Steve is in Bahrain and ready to roll. The car is untested, but it has been designed by Toyota Motorsport and nobody has accused them of incompetence. Toyota Motorsport even once made a Ferrari, a matter ignored by the FIA.
Like you, I did not have a vote when it came to the Presidency of the FIA, but I had a preference and it was for Ari Vatanen. Jean Todt won and he has inherited an unholy mess in the wake of Max Mosley.
I wish M. Todt the very best because he is the man who has to clear up Max's shite.
One thing which may be certain is that if you phone the President of the FIA, his PA will not say, 'He cannot come to the phone, he's tied up at present.'
Mike Lawrence
mike@pitpass.com
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