The FIA completed its second round of visits to the US F1 team's Charlotte headquarters on Wednesday, and the governing body's representative pronounced himself pleased with US F1's progress.
“I personally visited the US F1 Team in August as well as this week, and I am impressed with the progress made by the organization since the Concorde Agreement was signed in late July,” said Nick Craw, FIA's deputy president for sport. “It has all come together very quickly for the team, and we welcome them into Formula 1 competition in 2010.”
As part of the process to ensure success for the four new F1 teams approved to enter the sport next year, the FIA visited US F1's shop in Charlotte, N.C. twice in the span of three months to examine the progress made by the team since its acceptance into F1 on June 12 of this year.
“We have had an open dialogue with the FIA since the team's inception in 2008, and we welcome their visits to the United States,” said Ken Anderson, US F1 team principal, president and CEO. “We are proud to show them that, despite what is currently circulating in the rumor mill, our Charlotte shop is fully operational and we are well under way to construction of a unique U.S.-designed Formula 1 racecar.”
In addition to announcing Chad Hurley as its primary investor, US F1 has assembled what it calls “a world-class race team made up of some of motorsports' best minds and most influential suppliers and technical partners.” The team says design of the 2010 racecar is complete, crucial components are currently being constructed and the team is on-schedule to produce a rolling chassis by early November and a race-ready car for shakedown testing by mid-January.
“The creation of a new team in the world's toughest form of motorsport is not easy, but there is no doubt whatsoever that we will be on the grid inBahrain in March 2010,” Anderson said. “We have the right staff, the right partners and soon we will have the right drivers. We look forward to going racing next year.”