America’s Formula One team has been officially launched with organizers unveiling plans to begin competition with two cars in 2010.
USF1 will be based in the heartland of America’s stock car series NASCAR and will be backed by Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson. Both have been involved in helping run Formula One teams in the past.
Anderson said having an American F1 team is an ideal fit.
“There’s more equipment, more people here than anywhere on the planet,” said Anderson who has worked for two Formula One teams.
Windsor and Anderson did not go into details about how they would finance the team but they have projected their annual budget to be about 62 million dollars.
Windsor said Formula One head Bernie Ecclestone has given them the green light to go ahead.
Windsor rattled off a list of relatively unknown open-wheel drivers currently competing in lower ranks, the most notable Jonathan Summerton, a 21-year-old Florida native racing in Europe in the A1GP Series.
Then he and Anderson turned to their dream list, which included former F1 driver Scott Speed, NASCAR star Kyle Busch and IndyCar glamour girl Danica Patrick. But Speed has said he has no interest in leaving NASCAR for an F1 return. Busch and Patrick both are willing to discuss the opportunity, but neither has been contacted by USF1 representatives.
Neither principal mentioned Marco Andretti, the budding IndyCar star and grandson of 1978 F1 world champion Mario Andretti.
“There are NASCAR drivers out there who I really think if they want to switch to Formula One we could groom them and help them make that change,” said Windsor.
“Kyle Busch, what a great star he would be, Formula One would welcome anything like that. Danica Patrick is another name who would have to be considered for what she has achieved.”
Danica Patrick is interested in talking to the U.S.-based group trying to build a Formula One team for 2010 since her contract with Andretti Green Racing expires after this IndyCar Series season.
“(F-1) is not No. 1 on my list, but a conversation never killed anyone,” she said today.
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