Racing Eagles

They're Making Toasters!

According to Adam Cooper's blog (who has been the Woodward and Bernstein of the USF1 story,) the employees of USF1 have started to develop a toaster in honor of the now legendary USF1 cartoon series.

All I can say, is where can I order one?

Thursday Thoughts: Public money and motorsports

Looks like I've gotten myself into something again. I volunteered to do the Thursday Thoughts this week.

So here is my question:

Is government finance of Formula One events, teams, and personal a good thing for the common good of that area? What is the line between regional economic investment and the wholesale fleecing of the public? 

I know an answer to this question usually incites knee jerk reactions. On one end you have people who scowl at millionaires asking for taxpayers money to build them a new pleasure palace for their gladiators to play. On the other end you have the fans of that sport lauding the proposal and touting their sport's positive impact.

My first "official" piece of USF1 merchandise!

Eight things I would like to see USF1 do.

There is nothing worse than a armchair quarterback. It's a guilty pleasure to presuppose everything and think you can do better than the professionals. I know things are more complicated than what they seem. That said, as an observer, this is eight things I would like to see USF1 do.

Peter and Ken, feel free to steal ideas.

1: Let your actions speak louder than your press releases: A photo a car passing a crash test will do more than a thousand interviews of Peter Windsor trying to put out a wildfire of doubt. Even if it isn't the final design, it will show that you guys are making progress.

2: Get a on-line team store going: It was the one glaring thing that was missing from the initial team website. People love paying too much money for shirts, coffee mugs, mouse pads, ect with logos on them. Get on the horn with your clothing partners at Alpinestars about this.

3: Get some Americans in the pitlane: As an outside observer, USF1 looks more like Windsor-American racing. Americans might designing the car but so far, none are to be seen in the pitlane. Announcing an American race day engineer or two might do the trick.

4: Get any type of sponsorship deal arranged: I know that statement is simplistic. It takes a lot of time and effort to get companies to sponsor a race team, especially in these tough economic times. However, there is opportunity out there. One of them is the company that bought out Mr. Hurley's company, Google. Something needs to be seen on the sponsorship front. Even if it is a relatively minor sponsor.

5: Make your high-manufacturing credentials a selling point: One of the things about auto sports in general is the industry does a terrible job telling their story to the public. One of the things that Formula One can show to America is the cutting edge of manufacturing. With Boeing slowly moving into South Carolina and with the auto sports industry in Charlotte, the Carolina area is slowly becoming the hotbed for American manufacturing. USF1 can be the face this new revolution, if it can tell its' story.

6: Have a one-on-one with Bernie and tell him to shut up: Formula One is the only sport I have ever seen where the head of the sport so willingly throws people under the rug like Bernie does. Twice he has come out and caste doubt on USF1 and the other new teams. I don't care if it might be true or not, the fact that the head of the sport so willingly cast doubt on people in his sport is ridiculous.

7: Sign Johnathan Summerton and Alexander Rossi as test drivers right now. American racing fans need carrots for the future. We know we are not going to get two American drivers this year.I know these guys really don't bring in money, but it will confirm the commitment you made so many months ago about bring American talent into the sport.

8: Sell on the team's on-line store, a "USF1" branded toaster. If you haven't seen the Midweek Motorsports videos on USF1, here they are. It is a little harsh, especially towards Peter. I would love it if they took it on the chin and turn this around to sell some product on the team's website. Bring on the two slot USF1 toaster!

So what are some other ideas for USF1, please leave your idea in the comments.

F1 finally returning to insanity

Bless me readers for I have sinned. I have a confession to make... I love the off-season.

Maybe a bit more than the regular season.

It's the time when every armchair expert in Formula One gets to make their dream team. Can we have Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso re-unite at Ferrari? Can Hankook and Yokohama be the next great tire war? Will the cyborg known as Michael Schumacher finally have his carbon-fiber neck repaired by his masters at the CIA so he can team up with Ross Brawn and Mercedes next season? Will Vijay Mallya lose his Force India F1 team to Prince Albert of Monaco because he bet a little to heavily in India beating South Africa in cricket? Will USF1 switch to Renault as the French car maker makes an assault on the U.S. market? Will David Coulthard be on the cover of every tabloid magazine because he saved a bus full of orphans trapped under a frozen lake by using his jaw to chisel away the ice? Was the real reason why Luca di Montezemolo resigned from the FOTA chairmanship is to get some driving lessons?

Anything and everything is possible in the off-season. Any spark can cause a fire. Especially with new communications tools that allow almost immediate communication combined with competitive journalists and speculative fans. I say this as a student of grand prix history, this might prove to be the craziest silly season of all time. Never before has there been a mixture of intrigue, open seats, new teams, more intrigue, and just general ape-s**t craziness.

Jenson Button going to McLaren sealed it for me last night. Is there any sane reason why Jenson should go to McLaren or why McLaren would want him? Jenson will be the number two driver at McLaren even if his car says number one. He left one of the most successful engineers of all time and in a team where he would be the focus as the lead driver. For what? A few million dollars? Ego?

For McLaren, it's a waste of money and a potential nightmare in the paddock. Without a shadow of a doubt Lewis will completely and totally dominate the team leaving Button angry and bitter as he fails to match the pace and talent of his new teammate. I can already see GMM writing 15 "news" articles about how Jenson is unhappy at McLaren.

For me at least, the only way that this deal makes sense is that it is a case of two teenagers wanting to get back at their parents at Mercedes-Benz for taking away the car on Saturday night. That just an example. Don't get me started on Toyota, Bridgestone, BMW, new teams, driver rumors and such because I need to go work tomorrow.

I love all of it. Anything and everything is possible. This is what the off-seasons in Formula One used to be like before the corporatist attitudes of the manufacturers took over the grid. Its like the heady days of the late 1980's and early 1990's where drivers, engines, and staff would change at the blink of an eye. Teams would rise and fall faster than Usain Bolt being chased by a Siberian Husky. Its where the insanity of competitiveness between people with too much money ruled the day.

Recent years, the off-season would be a downer with Bernie or Max going off the handle or a team leaving making us think that the world is going to end. However, the difference with this off-season is that the craziness is in the right place... with the teams and drivers.  Last year, no a single driver was let go and only two teams changed engine suppliers. This year... god knows. For me at least, that creates a certain air of optimism. People are trying to make it and those who have made it are trying to make themselves better at any cost. Its what Formula One should be.

True, the question of Sauber is still sort of in the air but outside of that, none of this is doom and gloom. There are so many intriguing story lines developing for next season,I am going to have to do a 1,348,723,761 part season preview to capture it all.

So I say bring on the madness. Bring on the craziness in the paddock. Bring on the anarchy. Because as Harry Lime once said...

USF1, Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch and Toyota. My wild theory.

Sorry if this seems a bit of tea leaf reading here.

However "there is something happening here and it ain't exactly clear," to quote Buffalo Springfield. We all saw the story about Kyle Busch to USF1 by now. Not only that there has been some uncertainty in the F1 engine market. Its all a lot of bits and pieces of information out there that relate to this including:

• Toyota has been strangely quiet and calm about losing their engine customer, Williams.
  
• According to Joe Saward, USF1 already wants to get out of their Cosworth contract.
• Toyota is heavily invested in American motor sports. This includes being involved with several NASCAR teams including Joe Gibbs Racing. Well and true to say that Joe Gibbs is Toyota's premiere team in NASCAR.
• Guess who used to occupied USF1's current Charlotte shop? Yup, Joe Gibbs Racing. That may be more of a coincidence.
• Guess who Peter Windsor indicated as a driver he would want to talk to for USF1? None other than Joe Gibb Racing's own Kyle Busch.
• Finally, Ken Anderson has a links with Toyota going back to the mid-1990's working on Bobby Gordon's Baja racers and Dan Gurney's CART entries which were both Toyota team efforts. (Source: Grandprix.com's brilliant database.)

Back in black...

First, sorry to the readers of this blog. I've been away the last two weeks. Usually people would write this type of post before they leave, but I didn't have such foresight. After two weeks, a 3,000 mile road trip through 11 states, and one heck of a weekend in New York, I'm back.

It is amazing how much you can miss in the world of F1 in two weeks. Anyhow, I catching up and have some (hopefully) interesting posts coming up.

In Response...

After seeing this, I was at first rather angry. Then I realized that these guys don't know any better then to make fun of something they don't know.

The thing that I don't get is why they are so proud of their spec series. After all, is there really more to NASCAR then what is described in the video below?

NASCAR Coach Reveals Winning Strategy: 'Drive Fast'

USF1 + USGPE = USF&G???

I had this twilight zone moment this morning when looking through some old F1 footage.

Pictured above is the 1988 Arrows A10B powered by a turbocharged BMW.
Arrows achieve their best results in this car finishing fourth in the constructors champions.It helped that there was only four teams that stayed on with the end of the superchargers era before they were banned.

Who knew that the Arrows team had such foresight. Oh yeah, guess who the driver above is? It was the Arrows' ace who was their most successful driver of the eighties leading them to nine podiums.

That is right, American Eddie Cheever.

Quick question...

If the U.S. congress and the media can nail baseball players for using steroids... could they go after NASCAR drivers for performance enhancing drugs as well? I mean just look at this commercial.