Failed US F1 Fined, Banned

June 29th, 2010

VALENCIA, Spain — Already dead and buried, US F1 is now also fined and banned.

The FIA’s World Motor Sport Council came down hard on the North Carolina-based team that was granted an entry for the 2010 season but failed to show up.

Having found US F1 “guilty of having infringed the FIA International Sporting Code” the FIA fined the team 309,000 euros (which is basically the $382,000 sum the team deposited for its entry fee in the championship), plus it “disqualified” US F1, thus depriving US F1 of the right to take part, in any way whatsoever, in any competition.

US F1’s representatives said during the hearing that the team had $26 million in binding sponsorship contracts in December 2009, but that negative media comments, including those made by Bernie Ecclestone, plus the recession caused much of that funding to disappear. Actually, only one contract for $8 million was binding, and that money never materialized.

The FIA was not happy with the fact that although the team was more than six months away from being able to produce an F-1 car, it did not notify the FIA it would not be able to compete until three weeks before the season began. That deprived other prospective teams the chance to compete.

- After months of negotiations and arguments about which company would replace Bridgestone as F-1’s tire supplier next year, the FIA announced that Pirelli has been awarded a three-year contract. This is good news for the teams’ designers who were desperate for just about anything “round and black” so that they could start designing next year’s cars. Fortunately, Pirelli will design tires that have characteristics similar to the Bridgestones, so the cars don’t need to be radically redesigned.

- Mercedes chiefs Norbert Haug and Ross Brawn denied rumors that they had contract talks with Robert Kubica. “We are very happy with Michael Schumacher,” said Brawn. Schumacher and Nico Rosberg are under long-term contracts. But NSSN hears rumblings that there is dissatisfaction with Schumacher very high up in the Daimler board of directors.

- Texas governor Rick Perry and other state officials are declining to reveal terms of the agreement for the proposed United States Grand Prix in Austin, according to a report in the American-Statesman, which said that Perry’s office “was mostly denying the American-Statesman’s open-records request to see the documents, including correspondence and communications to and from the governor’s office related to the discussions to bring the race to Texas.”

The paper said that “the governor also argued that the public was not entitled to view other F-1 documents because of an exception to open-records laws that shields certain information related to economic development.”

- NSSN spotted Lotus’s chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne ushering Renault’s deputy managing engine director Rob White and another senior Renault official into a meeting in the Lotus hospitality unit in Valencia. Lotus is contemplating a switch from Cosworth to Renault engines next year, and the team is in discussions with Mercedes as well.

- Strikes in France caused travel havoc all over Europe for those flying to Valencia on the Thursday before the race. Heikki Kovalainen arrived in Valencia at 5 a.m. Friday having driven through the night from Geneva. Fortunately he had someone with him to split the driving chores.

- Few mortals get the chance that Joe Randello did: to drive a F-1 car. Randello won the Johnnie Walker Drive Of A Lifetime competition, and he completed three laps of Silverstone’s National circuit in the same McLaren MP4-23 that Lewis Hamilton used to win the 2008 British Grand Prix. “I am blown away,” Randello said, “this car was such an animal to drive.”