Speaking to Autosport, Ken Anderson had the following to say about the team and the car.

Quite a lot of it is ready to manufacture. The chassis is locked down, because we were waiting to hear if the [Cosworth] engine rev limit was 20,000rpm or 18,000rpm.

The chaps will now start building the chassis in August. We will have it rolling on the ground in late September, without bodywork or stuff, and then the bodywork will get added in October. Ken Anderson.

Anderson also spoke of the growing squad and his closeness to signing a deal with Spain’s Aragon circuit to allow them to use the facility as a European base. This is something USF1 wanted all along, and although the car will be designed and manufactured in Charlotte, the distance involved between North America and where the majority of races are held means that a European base makes better sense.

We were only approved a few weeks ago and it wasn’t prudent to order $5 million of machines until we were there. We have about 20 staff at the moment, but we have got 20 or 30 starting in August. The thing is we need people to run machines, and there was no point having them until the machines are there.

The Aragon facility is a fantastic facility, the people there are very nice, very helpful. It is a great place for winter testing, and we would like to have our drivers based there, or at Paul Ricard, and run all the time. Ken Anderson.

Anderson pointed out that should the Aragon deal not come together, they are also evaluating Paul Ricard in France as a possible base, the French test track proving popular with many current Formula One teams for testing purposes.

Nothing much has been said about the driver line-up, although the team must be in talks with some drivers at the moment. Last week, Danica Patrick all but ruled out a switch to Formula One, proving what many had predicted. Speaking with the LA Times, Patrick was asked if she had nailed down her chosen category for next year (the obvious options being IndyCar, NASCAR or F1), to which Danica replied with “it’s probably not F1″.

Original article by BlogF1.

Team USF1 Are Making Steady Progress

Despite only winning one race in IndyCar so far and having been soundly beaten by her team mates, Patrick is still an interesting driver for many teams because of the marketability of the young lady. Being one only a few female drivers, and not afraid to speak her mind, Patrick brings a lot of interest wherever she goes. The photographs published in Sports Illustrated recently do little to discourage attention.

However, Danica is very aware of what a move from one discipline to another may do to her career, and while she is performing okay in IndyCar, a move to Formula One could very easily be disastrous as it could be spectacular. Patrick is concerned of making the move only to find the car she is in is hopelessly off the pace, leading to criticism and possible embarrassment.

I don’t believe that it’s very productive to lead people on if it’s not something that I’m interested in because you’re really opening yourself up then.

What if you go and do it and it doesn’t go ideally or perfect and you don’t set the world on fire? Then all of a sudden all you did was just open yourself up to criticism.

So I would think about it and I would check the schedule, and we’ll cross that bridge if it ever comes. Danica Patrick.

Danica Patrick’s contract with her current emplyer, Andretti Green Racing, ends at the close of the 2009 season, meaning that at the moment, Danica is free to move for 2010, the proposed entry year for USF1. It is probably likely that Patrick will test a USF1 car when one has been built, but thinking about the competitiveness of all previous new teams in Formula One, Danica may very well decide not to join (if a drive is offered). At least, not in the team’s first season anyway.

Original article by BlogF1.

Danica Patrick Hesitant Over Any Possible Move To Formula One

Danica Patrick entered the IndyCar scene in 2005 and while she is yet to really set the track alight with skill vastly superior to that of her rivals, the young driver has certainly caused many tongues to wag up and down the various pitlanes around the world. While Danica may not be considered the greatest driver to have raced, perhaps not even the greatest female driver to have entered the sport, the Wisconsin-born lass is certainly an attraction for the media. This is what Ken Anderson, one half of the management team behind the USF1 project had to say on Patrick…

She’s great. She gets a lot of press. Tony George would probably be pretty mad with me if I took her out of the IRL but we’ll see. I don’t know if it’s something she wants to do. We’d certainly love to test her and go from there. Ken Anderson.

After Danica finally had the opportunity to lift a ridiculously large trophy on the top step of the podium last year, her name was being mentioned in association with HondaF1. At the time, the Brackley outfit stated that while no discussions had taken place, Honda would be happy for the Danica to test for them. Of course, since then Honda have withdrawn from the sport and the current set of available seats appear to be sewn up for the moment. Aside that is, from USF1.

So what about USF1? It was mentioned last week that the new team, should they actually make it as far as the grid in 2010, would like to showcase American talent. That however poses a bit of a problem. The last American to race in Formula One was Scott Speed, and he was fired (or left before he was fired) after an argument with the team’s management.

Aside from Speed though, who else is there? No one else on the IndyCar grid has any real Formula One experience*, and NASCAR appears to be the place where drivers who used to race in Formula One end up at the moment. While a racing driver is still a racing driver no matter where in the world you happen to be, turning up to a grand prix where both the pilots in your cars do not know the circuit is surely adding an unnecessary headache. Therefore, maybe Speed would be a good bet for one of the seats.

In the comments to my last post about USF1, Gman mentioned Jonathan Summerton, one of A1GP’s Team USA drivers. Summerton has a little more experience of Formula One circuits than many of his counterparts, having raced in the A1GP series and the Formula Three Euroseries. However, the experience garnered from these series is still somewhat limited and at the age of 21, the Florida-born racer is perhaps a little too young still. If you read on though, you may realise that Jonathan is perhaps a solution to USF1’s long term goal, assuming of course they have one.

So back to Ms Patrick… Danica would surely bring a lot of media attention to the team, and this could play very nicely into the hands of the team (and Formula One as a whole) when USF1 go looking for sponsorship money. Patrick would bring the novelty of a female racer to Formula One and I for one wouldn’t mind seeing a fresh face in the paddock when I tune in to watch a grand prix!

But does Patrick deserve the chance to race in Formula One? That’s the question, and I think if we base the answer purely on her results in IndyCar, well, it isn’t an immediate “yes!” for me. Team mate Tony Kanaan finished in third place overall in the two previous IRL IndyCar seasons, while Patrick only managed seventh and sixth in the same car.

For me, the real answer is for USF1 to realise that perhaps by limiting their choice of drivers to one nation only they are in fact considerably limit the results they can achieve. While I am sure that there are plenty of American drivers who could thrive in Formula One, there are also plenty of French, British, Australian [et al] drivers. By turning USF1 into a more grown up A1GP team is wrong for all sorts of reasons, and this is perhaps why I have grown to respect Vijay Mallya.

Although Mallya would undoubtedly love to see an Indian driver in one of his Force India cars, the man is also aware that right now, there is no real Indian talent worthy of a drive in Formula One. In time, maybe Vijay Mallya will able to realise his dream much in the way Ron Dennis did with Lewis Hamilton, nurturing and developing a driver from a young age. Perhaps this is the approach Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor should be taking with the squad.

The last time I wrote about Danica (at the time when the association with HondaF1 was first mooted), opinion was divided. Let’s see if it has changed at all…

What do you think? Do you believe that if given the chance Danica could shine in Formula One, or is the lass just a pinup for teenage petrolheads the world over?

*There is Justin Wilson, but he appears to be finding better luck Stateside at the moment.

Original article by BlogF1.

Does Danica Deserve An F1 Drive?

Currently, Danica drives for Andretti Green Racing in the IRL IndyCar Series and started competing at this level in 2005. That year Patrick won the Rookie of the Year prize as well as the Most Popular Driver award (which we really should have in F1 just for comedy value). Danica scored 325 points and finished twelfth overall. Since then, Patrick has continued to improve both in results and the continued winning of the Popular Driver award. Currently, Danica sits in fifth in the 2008 championship. The Motegi round of the championship in Japan saw Patrick win for the first time, and now there is talk of the young star testing for HondaF1, the link being that Honda currently supply engines to Andretti Green.

Every driver would love to drive a Formula One car at some point in their life, so yeah, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a real, proper test. Danica Patrick.

Patrick went on to say that she had been recently asked to demonstrate a Formula One car in America, but refused because the organisers would be making her in to a show that would be embarrassing for her. But Patrick clearly wishes for a serious test, and given her ascent in IRL, perhaps the young racer deserves one.

Honda have denied any discussions with Patrick have taken place, but also said that they would be more than happy to offer Patrick a chance to test one of their Formula One machines. Katherine Legge was, I believe, the last lady to test a Formula One car, that being a Minardi back in 2005. However, the last female driver to attempt qualification for a race in F1 was Giovanna Amati, who competed in 1992. Unfortunately, it was with Brabham and the Italian driver didn’t really get anywhere with it. Skip forward 15 years though, and Formula One could be about to see its sixth woman to compete in the sport. I’m not going to hold my breath, but I might keep my fingers crossed.

Original article by BlogF1.

Could Danica Patrick Be Formula One’s Next Female Racer?