F1: FIA’s Charlie Whiting Visits USF1

Formula 1

F1: FIA’s Charlie Whiting Visits USF1

Charlie Whiting was in Charlotte North Carolina at the USF1 headquarters Wednesday...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted February 24, 2010 Balen (BEL)

The FIA's race director and F1 technical department head Charlie Whiting is in Charlotte at the USF1 headquarters. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Race director and F1 technical department head Charlie Whiting was believed to be visiting the US F1 facility in Charlotte Wednesday morning, having traveled to the USA Tuesday.

Although FIA sources would not confirm his presence, and trips to F1 teams are part of his normal schedule, it’s assumed that Whiting was paying the visit in order to find out exactly what the state of play is at the beleaguered team.

USF1 boss Ken Anderson recently asked the FIA for dispensation for the team to appear at the fifth race of the season in Barcelona. The governing body has recently issued a clarification insisting that teams cannot miss any races, despite suggestions that the Concorde Agreement allows teams to skip three events.

Whiting will be able to determine whether the team has any chance of competing even by Spain, and will presumably submit a report to that effect back to FIA President Jean Todt.

In the past ACCUS boss Nick Craw – who has been keen to see the project take off – has visited the team on behalf of the FIA.

Adam Cooper notched up his 25th season as a racing journalist in 2009. Born in London, England, he saw his first F1 race at age 10 in 1976. He began freelancing for Autosport magazine in 1985 and was on the fulltime staff from 1987-92. He then went freelance again, initially spending two years in Japan before following the 1994 Champcar series from a base in Indianapolis. He has not missed a Grand Prix since Suzuka ‘94, a run that has extended to Abu Dhabi ’09. Adam has written books about Eddie Irvine, Piers Courage and Michael Schumacher and hosts a race preview show on Sirius XM. He has written about F1 for SPEEDtv.com since 2005. Check out Adam's Blog or follow him on Twitter