States are back in play

• Last Updated: October 23. 2009 11:41PM UAE / October 23. 2009 7:41PM GMT

Peter Windsor, right, is a former Ferrari and Williams team manager. He is pictured here in 1986 with Williams driver Nelson Piquet. Sutton Motorsport

Matt Majendie talks to Peter Windsor, whose new team are aiming to rebuild
Formula One’s reputation in the US.

Half a century since the United States Grand Prix was first added to the Formula One calendar the country remains a tough nut to crack for the sport.

When Bruce McLaren won at Sebring in 1959, it appeared to be a sign of the times but, for the next five decades, the sport has struggled to find a rightful home there.

There have been bright moments – Watkins Glen successfully hosted a US GP every year from 1961 to 1980 – not to mention some successful American drivers over the years.

Half a century since the United States Grand Prix was first added to the Formula One calendar the country remains a tough nut to crack for the sport.

When Bruce McLaren won atSebring in 1959, it appeared to be a sign of the times but, for the next five decades, the sport has struggled to find a rightful home there.

There have been bright moments – Watkins Glen successfully hosted a US GP every year from 1961 to 1980 – not to mention some successful American drivers over the years.

But Phil Hill and Mario Andretti, who won the world title in 1961 and 1978 respectively, have very much been the exception rather than the rule. Since 1994, just one American driver has raced on the grid: Scott Speed, and his two-year spell at the wheel of a Toro Rosso from 2006 to 2007 hardly set the world alight.

Formula One is desperate to get back to the US. McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh recently hinted that the teams should pay toreturn there, while promoter Bernie Ecclestone has made no secret of his desire for a return with rumours of a race in New York rife.

A converted Nascar factory in Charlotte, North Carolina, could hold the key to Formula One finally unlocking the elusive American dream. There the former Joe Gibbs racing facility has been turned into the new home of US F1, one of four new teams on the grid for next season.

The brains behind the team are Peter Windsor – a former Williams and Ferrari team manager and currently a television presenter – and Ken Anderson, whose association with the sport dates back to the 1980s when he provided shock absorbers to the Williams F1 outfit.

It marks the first genuine US team on the grid since Team Haas’s failed operation in the 1980s whichlasted just 19 races before pulling out because of a lack of sponsorship. And it is the first time a Formula One car has been built in the US since Dan Gurney ran his Anglo American Racers team in the 1960s.

US F1 are also the first team to be built completely from scratch since Jackie Stewart’s eponymous race outfit was launched in 1996, but Windsor insists he and Anderson can succeed where others have failed in cracking America.

“Ken and I first sat down and talked about this four or five years ago, but we never set out with the idea of trying to convert America to F1,” he said.

“We’re not taking F1 to America, we’re taking America to F1. And we know we have a battle. I think a lot of people are confused by us plus there’s the fact that F1 has never been as big as Nascar in the US and probably never will be.

“But we knew all that from the outset. We didn’t sit down and say ‘right, let’s set up an F1 team in the US, that’ll be a lot of fun’. We sat down and worked out all the boxes we needed to tick to make it happen and also looked at all the potential pitfalls we might encounter. In F1 that’s impossible to predict, of course.”

Arguably the biggest stumbling block for US F1 to realise their ambitions was the dispute between the Formula One Teams Association (Fota) and the sport’s governing body, the FIA. For much of the season there were threats of a breakaway series set up by the sport’s leading car manufacturers.

A peaceful solution was eventually reached, but the uncertainty of the situation cost Anderson, Windsor and their team valuable time setting up their American headquarters.

Their Charlotte base is now fully equipped with the latest motorsport technology available. There are two CNC machines – a computer system used to design components for the car, an in-house television production studio and a kitted out fabrication shop,assembly and sub-assembly areas and departments for electronics, research and development,design and engineering and aerodynamics.

However, unlike all the other 13 or 14 teams on the grid – depending on whether the rebranded BMW Sauber outfit guarantee their spot on the grid for 2010 – everything is “born in the USA”.

“This car is 99 per cent American built,” said Windsor, “although that said, as in every area of F1, there are a raft of nationalities working on it.”

US F1 plan to have a European base – a currently unnamed location thought to be in either France or Spain – to complement their American headquarters. Windsor readily admits it might have seemed easier to set up shop completely in Europe, but is confident he and Anderson have made the right choice.

“We had to think outside the box and I genuinely don’t think we would have got off the ground if we’d done this in Europe,” he said.

“We would have been the same as all the other European teams already running and where would are uniqueness be? Every F1 team has a unique marker. Ferrari has its sense of history while Red Bull is renowned for its marketing with its energy drink.

“Our point is that we’re completely American and that involved being based there as well, and getting Americans – the public and investors – to believe in us. Also we marked ourselves out as the F1 team for the new generation, for the dotcom generation if you like.”

US F1 appear to have achieved just that by getting YouTube founder Chad Hurley on board as their major investor. It remains to be seen whether their car will be emblazoned with the YouTube logo, but appealing to the new generation is another way in which the team aim to tackle a hard-to-please American market.

“We’re trying to do things that have never been done before in F1,” explained Windsor. “For starters, we’re a complete TV channel as well. We’ve got our own television production company, and load of HD cameras and we’re going to be filming an access-all-areas style programme.

“F1’s always been very secretive but we want to open up what we’re doing to everyone – not just on race weekends but for 365 days of the year. Of course, there will some areas out of bounds as we don’t want to give anything much away to our rivals, but that will be all part of the fun for the viewer.”

Clearly the interest in Formula One exists in the US. When the United States Grand Prix returned to the calendar in 2000 after a nine-year hiatus, 200,000 fans attended the event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

In addition to that, there are no shortage of American brands currently linked to the series. Its global notoriety makes it a massive marketing tool for US-based companies.

But interest in the sport will never reach fever pitch until the American public have their own hero to applaud. Windsor played a key role in helping Nelson Piquet be world champion in 1987, and discovering Nigel Mansell, who went on to win the 1992 world title for Williams, and he plans to do something similar in America.

At the unveiling of US F1’s ambitious project, Windsor announced that the team planned to run two American drivers for 2010, with Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti the leading names linked to the project.

The pair have since distanced themselves from it – at least in the short-term – and, although US F1 are still keen to get an American driver on their books, it is no longer a primary concern.

“Long-term, our aim is to still have two American drivers with US F1,” said Windsor, “but we lost some valuable time with the Fota-FIA row and the best way we can catch up on that time lost is to have an experienced F1 driver on our books, so less time will be spent getting them used to the rigours of F1. So it’s more likely thatwe’ll have at least one very experienced driver although we might still get an American driver out there for 2010.”

Indy Lights racer Jonathan Summerton is the most likely candidate as the next American in F1, although the immensely popular Kyle Busch, winner of 58 Nascar races and still currently under contract to the brand, is the undeniable dream target for Windsor and his team.

Jacques Villeneuve drives his BMW Sauber during practice for the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2006. Michael Conroy / AP Photo

US F1 have also held talks with current Brawn GP test driver Alexander Wurz and 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who hails from Canada and, as such, would clearly appeal to the North American market.

But Windsor added: “We’ve not decided on our driver line-up and there’s no rush. What we’d dearly love is to bring an American up through the ranks and make it a Rocky-style story. That would be the dream and that’s still achievable.”

The current focus is working on getting the car up to scratch. The workforce – made up of experts from America and also other existing European F1 teams – is still being put together and, even before jobs were advertised, Windsor claims he already had 1,000 job applications in his inbox.

The car design is already completed and the aim is to have a rolling chassis up and running in the team’s factory at the start of next month to allow it to undergo the required FIA crash tests, while January has been set for the team’s first on-track test.

Television networks in the US, including Speed TV who Windsor works for, have shown increasing interest in US F1. Windsor, however, says a lot of work needs to be done to mend the previous damage done by the sport in the US.

The 2005 United States Grand Prix ended in farce when just six cars took to the track for the race after the Michelin runners – the majority of the grid – were pulled out by the tyre manufacturer because of safety fears following crashes in practice.

Many pundits suggested the American public has never forgiven Formula One for the fiasco and Ecclestone says he feels he has unfinished business there. When talking about the prospect of a US GP, he said: “We need to do whatever we can to get back there.”

US F1 will surely help that cause although, with the car expected to be a backmarker in its debut season, that will not happen overnight.

The car will be powered by a Cosworth engine, which is not expected to be as powerful as the Mercedes and Renault engines that dominated this season’s championship. And while Windsor says the team’s chassis is “solid” and the aerodynamic package is “set up nicely”, he does not expect anything too dramatic in season one.

“We need to be realistic,” he said. “Sure, we’re pleased with the design of the car, but we’re a team that’s started from scratch, so we’re not going to be up front from the word go. We expect to get there, but our initial goal is to build a car that will finish races and we’re confident we have that.”

Just getting to the grid for the season opener in Bahrain is an achievement, the team having got the budget together in America mid-recession, something Windsor is clearly proud of.

“Perhaps 2009 wasn’t the ideal year to launch a new team but we’ve done it and it’s great,” he said. “I know people might have their doubts about F1 in the US but this has gone so well I can’t believe no one’s done it before.”

Windsor fully expects to have an F1 success story on his hands in the near future and believes the American model could see other countries and regions, in particular the Middle East, follow suit.

“That really could be the way for the region to go and what a marketing tool for it,” he said. “I could seriously envisage a Middle East team in F1 in a few year’s time. There’s a growing passion for F1 there and you only have to look at Yas Marina to see that they can achieve great things in F1.

“But it’s not just about a team. They’d need to get a driver training programme in place and, like we’re trying to do in the US, get their own star turn. But I’m sure there’s a Lewis Hamilton lurking around the region.”

Double world champion Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, is among those confident that Formula One will finally successfully tackle America and, he says, all eyes will be on US F1.

“If they win races that will create a boom in the USA,” said Alonso, whose achievements in his native Spain have had a similar impact.

Windsor’s response? “I hope so and I really believe so. If F1’s not popular in the US, it’s not because it’s not cool. It’s just F1’s never sold itself to the American public particularly well. We think we can change that.”

mmajendie@thenational.ae