Besides being a good guy, Adam Cooper is usually on my read list daily and so it is also a must-follow on Twitter. After sailing the Twitter Time Line, I found Cooper’s comment about a new story interesting. Cooper suggested that he had been sitting on the information for some time and I believe him because he seems like a genuine, honest guy.
You will recall that USF1 signed Jose Maria Lopez with all the pomp and circumstance of a barely noticeable press release and the random Kodak insta-matic photo but apparently James Rossiter was also signed to USF1 many weeks ago and that story was never released.
Cooper said:
While there were rumors that Rossiter was in the frame for the other seat – thanks to Lopez’s management telling the Argentinean media – the deal was in fact signed and sealed. Both drivers were committed to bringing $8m, a large chunk of which was to be paid before the first race, as is standard practice.
However sources have confirmed to SPEEDtv.com that in early February Rossiter’s backers sought reassurances that everything was going to plan in Charlotte, and sufficient funding was in place.
When USF1 was not able to provide those guarantees, Rossiter withdrew from the deal.
I am in lock-step with Cooper on his assertion that the team seemed to have a serious, if not multiple, flaws. They had two paying drivers with a combined $16m invested and YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley standing in the gap. The team still couldn’t field a car. I am bereft of what issues may have been present but it does not bode well for the management skills of owners Ken Anderson or Peter Windsor.
It is also interesting that Hurley is being re-cast as the only guy at USF1 that cares in many of the stories that are being leaked by “senior sources” or “employees” of USF1. Even Speed TV’s own story on the 2011 deferment request lists Ken Anderson and Chad Hurley as the partner with a glaring omission of Peter Windsor.
At the risk of picking through the rubble in search of dirty laundry, I am perplexed by the whole situation and if there are major management failures, miscues and outright junior-league mistakes, then this is really not about a failed F1 team anymore; it has ventured in the the realm of character assassination which we would like to avoid.
Suffice to say that USF1 is a tragic example of the combination of resources to create failure where success was the goal…I just hate that they had the bravado to use “US” in the name and trumpet past luminaries like Dan Gurney as the model of their new venture while riding on his coattails.
