US F1 Team Ready For 2010 Season

The operators behind a new US-based F1 team have declared that the team will be ready to join the grid in time for the 2010 season.

Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson, the duo behind the scheme, have said the cars will be built in North Carolina and driven by American drivers.

They also confirmed they have finance in place and that F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has given them his backing.

Said Windsor: ‘I told Bernie Ecclestone about this in Brazil 2006, and he just said, ‘great, get it done’. He has kept in touch ever since and has always been supportive.’

Windsor, a journalist and television presenter, is a former Williams team manager and will assume the role of sporting director while Anderson has many years of experience in both F1 and Indy Car as a race engineer.

The current global economic crisis has forced many teams into cost cutting measures ahead of the new season on 29th March, while struggling Honda are still looking to find a buyer.

Despite the situation, USF1 will not be backed by a manufacturer or wealthy businessman, with Windsor saying they have put together a viable business plan that will work.

He said: ‘If you look at the way it’s gone in the recent past, it’s been either you find a rich trillionaire and have him dominate, or you are lucky enough to be invited by a large car company to set up their F1 operation.

‘Ken and I have been around long enough to know we didn’t want to do those things. We always wanted to do our own team our way. We have got some things we want to bring in.

‘The key was not to selling anything more than a very small stake in the team. We set ourselves some unbelievably steep hills to climb in a recession, but we only wanted to sell a small part of the team, and, as we sit here now, I’m pleased to say we’ve done that and we’re now two guys that can say we are going to do an F1 team because we have the capital to do it.’

F1 races in America and Canada have recently been taken off the calendar and there are currently no US or Canadian drivers competing in the sport.

Danica Patrick, the first woman to compete in the Indy Car series in the US, has been linked with a seat with the new team as have former Torro Rosso driver Scott Speed, and Mario Andretti’s son 21-year-old Marco.