USF1 -- F1's All-American Challenger

[donskar]

Red Bull skipped the first test last year, if memory serves, and didn't do all that badly thereafter . . .

[WhiteBlue]

Red Bull skipped the first test last year, if memory serves, and didn't do all that badly thereafter . . .

indeed they did. Brawn skipped all but the last.

[timbo]

Red Bull skipped the first test last year, if memory serves, and didn't do all that badly thereafter . . .

indeed they did. Brawn skipped all but the last.

But both teams had previous F1 experience AND the money.

[outer_bongolia]

Red Bull skipped the first test last year, if memory serves, and didn't do all that badly thereafter . . .

indeed they did. Brawn skipped all but the last.

But both teams had previous F1 experience AND the money.

...AND the car -in case of Brawn.

[Richard]

I'm chilled out about new teams not doing every test.Their goal will be to turn up in Bahrain with a car that goes forward and can negotiate corners without falling apart. Ideally, one of their two cars might go the race distance.You only need one test for that, if at all.

I'd be more worried for safety if they never practiced pit stops, although we'll not have to worry about defective frisbees or flaming fuel. Talking of which, were Brawn right to help whats-his-name at Interlagos??

[nipo]

Another funny thing is how Windsor was so excited to explain his PR and media plans when USF1 started last year. I think he mentioned something like being the most transparent team and making a breakthrough at openly sharing their technology and how the team is being built up (as opposed to the usual secretive behavior of other F1 teams). Speed TV and all that, you know.

Now a few months later he comes out of silence and justifies his team's low profile by saying "you don't invite your friends to come to your new house when you are still building it" or something like that. Yeah that makes sense, Mr. Windsor, only have you advertised this transparency so much in the first place.

A fair and objective mind can only make one thing out of this contradiction - USF1 had shamefully little to tell over the past 5 or 6 months that Mr. Windsor had to discard his grand media plans to avoid embarrassment.

I think it is a fair judgement to say Mr. Windsor is the classic example of talking too much, setting objectives too high, not knowing what to do to achieve them, and failing miserably.

Then again I could be wrong. It could be a way to create media hype (look at this thread!). It could be that Mr. Windsor just needs to listen more to his PR advisor. It could turn out okay and they might show up at a few tests and actually get a reasonable car running in Bahrain. I don't know. I'm just saying it is quite fair for all the people here who are skeptical about USF1, because so far it has worked quite hard to lead you to think that way.

[Pandamasque]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEGK1MxvWTo[/youtube]

The lad in brown looks like he's being held hostage or something.

[Giblet]

Varsha is trying to be like Todt, wearing a red sweater even though his face is obviously sweating profusely.

[pipex]

I LOL'ed with the engineers interviews, these guys don't care about cameras and look really geeky. The guy in brown looks like he's on drugs hahaha, maybe trying to get the car ready on time

[xpensive]

Interesting how times change, if it had been my design-engineering office in Pennsylvania only 13 years ago, those guys would have cleaned up their appearence more than a tad before going global, the poor guy with the brownish thing on wouldn't be on-screen in the first place.

But that goes for Varsha as well, he needs a haircut badly, what's with the sweater anyway?

[FW17]

NASCAR has a tonne of sponsors, some that are US relevant only others that are international, some small some real large. I am sure that USF1 will be tapping into this endless list, but Peter being Peter is keeping it real close or has not signed any.

From USF1 point of marketing they should have an easier time getting the stickers on the car but they might not be worth that much. Are there any speculation on any sponsors that are being associated with them, Dupont? Chevron? Texaco? Coke? Bud? UPS?

Personal Fav

[mx_tifoso]

There's a ghost in the JD picture.

And the brown sweater guy in the video was really emotional and/or nervous? I felt bad for him. In Spanish it's 'pena ajena'.

[christopher.mahlon]

I think the very obvious camera shyness of the engineers is pretty charming. These are guys who ordinarily wouldn't be allowed near the media center and the team is trying to get them out in front as the face of the team. That's kind of cool. Maybe.

In other news, we've seen pretty much complete pictures of the CFD models the team is using, and the look hasn't really changed. Unless they've got a big surprise up their design sleeves we know what the car is going to look like.

So, those who are smarter with aerodynamics than I am, what do you think of the car? Anything interesting that you see on the CFD models?

[Pandamasque]

Interesting how times change, if it had been my design-engineering office in Pennsylvania only 13 years ago, those guys would have cleaned up their appearence more than a tad before going global, the poor guy with the brownish thing on wouldn't be on-screen in the first place.

But that would ruin all the unprecedented transparency.

Don't miss Bob Varsha Walk Around Part 3 - interviews at the state-of-art lavatory facility.

[ringo]

Guy in the brown is probably has some disorder like autism or even parkinsons.