Ecclestone: Campos and USF1 may miss first 3 races
February 8, 2010 by Negative Camber
Filed under Prime & Option, Top Story
F1’s commercial rights boss Bernie Ecclestone has suggested, in the Sunday Express, that the Concorde Agreement that binds F1 together allows for three absences from a team. He surmises that this is the reason we most likely not see USF1 and Campos Meta in Bahrain.
“I think we won’t see [the Spanish team] Campos and I don’t think we will see the Americans.”
While Campos had made no secret that they are seeking funding with last weeks buzz centered around the possible investment from A1GP’s Tony Teixeira, there have been rumors that the Dallara chassis the team was banking on using may have been craftily bought by F1’s oddity, Stefan GP. The Serbian outfit, which has no official place on the 2010 grid, has been running a mirror operation outside of the current teams including purchasing now-defunct Toyota F1’s inventory, signing an engineering assistance agreement with the Japanese Car maker, crash testing of the chassis and testing at Portimao this month.
Some question if Campos Meta even found the money to continue, could they legally do so with A Dallara and if not, what chassis would they use? The focus also is on USF1 who are creating new ways to scupper their efforts through dodgy PR and the loss of a sponsor. While staying positive about the whole operation, team boss Peter Windsor seems to be hinting that there are difficult times but passion and determination will see them in Bahrain. Ecclestone isn’t buying it.
Ecclestone is a grand orchestrator and what he wants in F1 usually, and I do mean usually but not always, happens. I have my suspicions but I suspect Stefan GP is being helped along these choppy waters by Ecclestone himself as the glowing praise and capital seemed to just arrive:
“They have got the money from the Serbian government, I’ve spoken to the prime minister.”
Announced last week, Stefan GP will be traveling to the first race in Bahrain this year with the entire load of cars and team gear ready to race. Is this a dastardly plan to scuttle the efforts of USF1 or Campos Meta? Probably not but it is just being prudent on Ecclestone’s part. If he suspects a no-show, he is preparing for an alternative and who can blame him. The teams have been less than overt in their chances of making the grid and Ecclestone knows too well that platitudes don’t mean presence in F1.
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If USF1 had not already looked fishy – in terms of giving a damn about mis-using the name of this country – If they had secured the public’s constant attention and approval (it is called Public Relations Windsor and Ken) – then many in this country would immediately have filled the sponsor gap – they would have bought hundreds of thousands of T Shirts and caps, they would be a public gound swell to support them… as it is, they have alientated many, bored more still and, worse of all, looked shaken in the name of the United States.
Somebody remind me, but didn’t Bernie tell them they could not call themselves US Formula One… so they made it USF1 -maybe what he was really trying to tell them was: You can’t call yourselves US unless it is an official US tram.
And, clearly, they are not. Like dodgy politicians who wrap themselves in the flag, they seem to be getting less and less trustworthy.
Peter…I could not agree with you more…they are using USF1 name as some sort of ploy to get sponsors and it is not working cause. F1 is like soccer hardly anyone watches it in the U.S. The majority of fans don’t watch races at 7am on a Sunday morning. People have a hard time remembering our great racers in the U.S., e.g., Foyt, Unsers, etc.
Yeah. This is 100% the issue. Well, maybe not 100% the issue. There’s probably a bunch of $$$ issues, too.
But by calling themselves USF1 or USGPE or whatever, they misplayed the expectation game, I’m afraid.
I know we’ve all talked this through before here, but… it bears reminding as our hoped-for US F1 team isn’t living up to our VERY HIGH expectations. Expectations that the team built itself, so it bears a bunch of the blame.
Wish it weren’t so.
yep,usf1 are just to quiet,it is very unsettling,hopefully they are just to busy to say much and are on track to make bahrain,to me it seems a 50/50 chance they will be there,whatever happens i take my hat off to them for giving it a go
Bernie. Please shut up. Thank you.
I realize Ecclestone is influential and thus everyone is concerned by his comments, but this is the same guy everyone was cracking jokes about last week for spitballing the idea of shortcuts. Given that propensity for speaking freely and occasionally too freely, it’s hard to tell if he’s to be understood as speaking ex cathedra or not. He’s hardly some circumspect Alan Greenspan-type whose every word is intended literally and precisely calibrated for accuracy in consumption.
But the first race is slightly over a month away and only two teams haven’t either debuted their car or scheduled a debut this week at Jerez. The exact two he has fingered. You don’t have to be a genius to have this concern, it would be apparent to anyone who, say, looked at the unified calendar of car launches on Autosport and noticed the only two with neither a car nor an announced schedule for one.
I basically agree with the expectations game argument — USF1 has not taken off as I think they hoped — but I don’t think the driver choice(s) or the marketing effort have been stellar or even adequate. Perhaps I am naive in believing anything could compete with NASCAR and Danica Patrick, but I want to believe that the issues are not inherent in American open wheel and that a campaign that brought in some elite Indycar or F1 star — even as test driver — and then marketed the heck out of them, using the full gamut of US TV shows (where’s the stop on the Today show? 60 Minutes? etc.), advertising (look at Izod and Indy), the web (the site is more blog than real commercial site), and merchandising (if not toasters, then why not t-shirts and hats?), could have gone somewhere different, and better. It’s hard to tell where it went wrong because they are so insular, but it seems not to have gone to plan nonetheless.
I think Bernie needs to stop being so vocal and give them a chance. He obviously knows more than he is letting on and hence has spoken about the situation.
I really do hope that Campos and USF1 make the grid for the first race – this season is going to epic!
yep,bernie should shut that piehole sometimes,must be something in it for him to be wanting this stefan gp team in so bad
Bernie’s sold an F1 season with 14 teams on the track -with all the resulting contracts involved- and he has to deliver. If it boils down to a “something’s got to give” situation, something “will give” (Campos-Meta or USF1, who cares?). If on top of that he can bring Stefan on stage -with another Schumacher to tie up the deal- I ask, which way do you think the dice will roll?
I think you’re right Tomas. I believe he is just being pragmatic (not that F1 has proven that is a good way to be) about the grid. He has 4 new teams and if one fails to show, he needs a back up which is what Stefan GP is. I hate to make assertions on this but they very well miss the first three races. Campos says he should have his team secured by next week. Who knows?