It might have been a few weeks since NASCAR’S Stewart-Haas owner Gene Haas announced to the worldwide media that he had been approved to begin an operation which will see a U.S formula one team in either 2015 or 2016. To many formula one fans from this country, it might be a blessing to see something that has been attempted many times, failed, and given another chance.
However, to some fans who are 50 and over, this so-called failure from the past does not mean that it cannot be done again, as many recall two teams that were in the Formula One World Championship in the 1970’s era. One happens to be the famous Penske Racing Team, which in fact gave it’s only win in 1976 at the old Osstereichring circuit with John Watson of Northern Ireland, taking the win. The team stayed in F1 for a few seasons, until Roger Penske himself began to get a tight cash flow and had to choose between this and the Indy Car Racing team he had in America. For Penske, he chose Indy, and he had very much success. However, it began the dawn of not having another formula one squad out from America.
The other team was UOP Shadow, which had such stars as American Peter Revson, Frenchman Jean-Pierre Jarier, and Welshman Tom Pryce. The latter received one win, but unfortunately, both Pryce and Revson were killed in the same sponsored car during that period. UOP Shadow also competed in the North American Can-am series at the same time, but the team felt it might have been easier to do this and quietly withdrew from formula one.
No real chance of having a formula one team absed in the U.S. came around until 2003, when a rumor came around that Dan Gurney, the legendary American who in fact, had his own formula one team in the mid 1960’s, decided the time had come to try to build up another one. The date was set to have it ready in 2004, but the engine deals were never met and another chance was lost.
Which now comes to the most and biggest disappointment to date. In 2010, Peter Windsor and his business partner, Ken Anderson, put together a team out of NASCAR bred North Carolina, and called it USF1. The idea was have a team based out of America and include another base somewhere in Europe. In the case of USF1, it would have been Spain. But the team hardly had any money, and what made things worse, the team could not pay their drivers to race, which even meant hiring Argentinean 26 year old Jose Maria Lopez, who brought sponsorship money to race for the team. Everything in the shop was late for delivery and Lopez never raced in the car. In fact the car was never ready, let alone trying to hire another driver. The team was fined and the shop was closed, never to even make it out for the launch and the opening pre-season tests.
In general, USF1 was a good example to many that you need to have money to make it, and this enters in the emergence of Gene Haas, who claimed that he has had this idea in his mind for a while. And with the assistance of former Jaguar Racing team manager Guenther Steiner, it was announced that the F.I.A., the governing body of motorsports, which includes formula one, looked over the situation and given the green light for Haas to build up his team. Haas has also included that he, just like USF1 before him, will be based out of North Carolina, and perhaps have his European base out of Italy and be associated with Ferrari for the supply of engines.
But it still remains when Haas and his new team called Haas Formula, will begin their quest on the formula one grid. Haas has also made it clear that it will be known that it will be either next year or the following whether or not this venture will begin. So far, it has been very quiet and events are building, so it might be very soon that Haas has to decide to hire staff, and get things going for something that literally has to be on the right track.
And of course, there are skeptics. Not those who believe that the team can’t race, but how they are approaching it.
Two in general, Watson and former racer Johnny Herbert believe that the team should buy into one of three f1 teams that are financially having problems: Caterham, Marussia or Lotus. That way the staff and the factories are already there. It has worked for Lotus already, considering their financial problems, but also for Mercedes and Red Bull, who both took time, but moved up to the front of the formula one grid.
Haas thought about it, but believed that there would be too much left over and much to be responsible for, so the idea would be to start the team from scratch. Now, after all this, fingers are crossed and now that the U.S has an F1 race in Texas, and possibly another one in California or New Jersey , why not a F1 team? Because it could come down to this: either it works this time, or it never will again.
Mark Gero has written formula one racing stories since 2002 on the Internet for such sites as Motorsport.com, Racing Information Service News and for a brief time at the Munich Eye newspaper in Munich, Germany along with Autoweek online. Mark also has a diploma in journalism from the London School of Journalism in London, England and in addition a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa.