Continuing the countdown to the F1 2010 campaign, we're looking the newcomers - but not Lotus, Virgin and Hispania. Crash.net called out the two that failed to make it – Stefan GP and USF1.
Having acquired Toyota’s ready-designed TF110 chassis, a supply of the Japanese manufacturer’s engines and – subject to simply putting signatures on the contracts – ex-Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima and 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve behind the wheel, Stefan GP was ready for the Bahrain Grand Prix...but when the FIA published its final entry list for the 2010 campaign, Stefan was not on it, despite there being two available slots (thanks to USF1’s total failure to launch).
Prior to being definitively turned down, the Serbian-backed effort had flirted with the idea of a merger with its States-based rival, but then proceeded to publicly chastise the ‘American dreamers’ on its website when that merger was scrapped. They swiftly issued a retraction when it dawned upon Zoran Stefanovic and his team that the FIA might not appreciate the clear insinuation that racing's governing body had questions to answer should USF1 not make the grid and Stefan GP miss out as a result.
Stefan may yet elect to try again in 2011, though one of the reasons the FIA might have got cold feet about granting them USF1’s empty grid slot is that Toyota has yet to actually be paid for the chassis, and the funding behind the squad is far from as plentiful as had been made out, with the guarantees of government backing little more than a smokescreen. Coupled with the USF1 troubles, the FIA heads are rumored to be embarrassed by the combination of lack of money backing the efforts and the all-talk-and-little-action results. Expect a much more stringent vetting process from them in 2011.
The USF1 story dredges up memory of the 2002 Australian Grand Prix, when the remains of the bankrupt Prost Grand Prix were purchased by Phoenix Finance for £2.5 million following a bidding war with Minardi owner Paul Stoddart. The intention was to enter the world championship from round two in Malaysia.
Phoenix even turned up in Sepang with drivers, cars, engines and team personnel, but the team’s bid was blocked as a $48 million fee – required by being a new team with some of Prost Grand Prix’s assets, rather than having bought Prost in its entirety – had not been paid to the FIA as stipulated. Contending that they had indeed bought the defunct French squad and therefore by extension its rights to compete, Phoenix took its case to the High Court, but was rejected on the basis that whole teams and therefore world championship entries cannot simply be bought and sold. The sport’s commercial rights-holder Bernie Ecclestone subsequently remarked Phoenix "has bought nothing in Formula 1...all he has bought is some show-off cars".
USF1, for their part didn’t even have that in the end. SPEED TV pundit Bob Varsha said “They’ve built a tremendous manufacturing capability – they’ve just run out of time,” acknowledging that Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson's fatal error was in grossly underestimating the sheer cost and logistical challenge of competing at that level. “If they get another chance, they would run their business differently. They need organisational expertise. That might be missing at USF1.” Add to that the departure of YouTube founder Chad Hurley, who is still rumored to throw his support behind one of the other upstarts.
There's a lot of unproven teams premiering on the track, so it's actually a good thing that they're not packing it full just because they can. Every year there are teams trying to get into the big show, but there are other who fall out and fail. Perhaps this year's failures have more attention on them because there have been such striking changes between teams and in the field, but come Sunday's race, all that should be forgotten.
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