USF1 technical director Ken Anderson made a last-ditch proposal to the FIA requesting his team be allowed to begin its season in Barcelona. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

After an initial engine lease payment to Cosworth and starting up operations in the former shops of Joe Gibbs Racing, the remaining budget totaled an estimated $8 million. It was not enough. By January, the team needed to purchase the electronics equipment from McLaren used by all teams and make payments to the FIA, among other expenses. By Jan. 15, the team missed the payroll for five days.

The focus had already turned to paying drivers. But Anderson said the team was sundered when a signed sponsor pulled out. That sponsor was Marisco Liqueur, which was backing British driver James Rossiter. He had been recruited by Windsor, who declined comment on the team’s struggles to get its car built.

Marisco’s vetting of the team’s circumstances revealed mounting debt plus no immediate prospects of a car and the company declined to make its initial payment of $2.8 million in early January. Argentinian Jose Maria Lopez’s backers paid $800,000 to US F1 as an initial payment to secure his ride after signing in late January. That was the first installment of an $8 million agreement according to Lopez’s manager Felipe Gough.

Anderson believed he had an option of missing the first three races while retaining US F1’s position on the grid. But at a meeting of department heads in the third week of February, the vote was unanimous that the team would not be able to make the fourth round of the season in China. Anderson then requested to the FIA that the team be able to join in May at Barcelona.

Efforts by Mullins on behalf of Hurley to secure the Dallaras from the Italian manufacturer or the Toyotas directly from the Japanese company ran into road blocks because of existing contracts. Mullins tried to secure a partnership with the team of Stefan GP to gain access to the ex-Toyota TF110’s. That failed, said Mullins, primarily due to team owner Stefanovic’s intransigence.

“We offered a merger based on full retention of our staff in North Carolina and branding on the car,” said Mullins. The offer collapsed because the Serbian seemed impervious to the fact Ferrari was F1’s best recognized team. “He wanted to have two red cars,” said Mullins, who had also visited Ferrari headquarters in Maranello during his travels. “That would almost be sacrilegious.”

Currently trying to recruit U.S. companies as potential sponsors in F1, Mullins said efforts to secure an alternative path got a lot of help from Formula One Management’s Bernie Ecclestone. “He was more than happy to flex his muscle and get things done,” said Mullins of their January meeting in London, which included several phone calls by Ecclestone to key players to help US F1 broker a deal.

With no deals or US F1 car in sight, the FIA elected to open the 13th position on the grid to new teams in 2011. Anderson is reported to be among the applicants for the spot, but declined to comment specifically about future plans on the record. He said US F1 was still intact despite having fired its employes. “The entity,” he said, “is moving forward.”

Jonathan Ingram has been writing full-time about the world’s major motor racing series and events since 1983 for newspapers, magazines and web sites.


John can be reached at jingram@racintoday.com

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