USF1 -- F1's All-American Challenger

[Belatti]

This weekend Lopez has got the championship of the 2nd of the 3 tin top series he is driving here in Argentina. Next weekend he´ll go for the triple crown if the wins TC, something nobody did in the same year.

Superlicense? Who cares? chanoch nissany had a superlicense...

[cooper-climax]

I don't think that Jose will have much trouble getting a license, He's tested for Renault, won in gp2 and Bernie likes him.

Slightly off topic, I don't quite understand why everyone is so down on pay drivers. It's not like the old days where he's spending his Daddy's money to play in a formula One car. He's able to contribute to the team with personal sponsorship. Sponsorship he got by being Quick.

[madtown77]

It just comes down to the stability of the team. If you are taking money from drivers, it shows that you don't have all your own finances in order.

That being said if he is quick and can bring in money too, win-win. I just hope they take that money and use it to put a few American drivers into GP2 for the future. If they need the extra few milion to build the car, then I am worried.

[Pandamasque]

And here's the google translation:

Our car will be built when we say that Cosworth engine is ready and so we have no date, but hopefully it's before the first race in March.

Hopefully? That is a nice plan.

[Belatti]

It just comes down to the stability of the team. If you are taking money from drivers, it shows that you don't have all your own finances in order.

That being said if he is quick and can bring in money too, win-win. I just hope they take that money and use it to put a few American drivers into GP2 for the future. If they need the extra few milion to build the car, then I am worried.

Let that to American companies to put the money to get American drivers to GP2. They have much!

Let the fast paydrivers money to help "improve" the car performance.

Let the slow paydrivers money to help finishing the season

Still, Im worried about this team, too.

[Professor]

Being optimistic, I'm hoping that when he says "build" he means final assembly. As in, "all final components in place and tested." If that is not what he means, then the team is in deep ---.

I suspect that the "final build" of the Brawn was one week before the last possible testing opportunity. They too were dependant on the engine dimensions, gearbox interface, etc. They dealt with it using the proffered drawings, but their final connections were revised once they had the lump in the chassis. This is especially true of auxillary components like elec. harnesses, hydraulic connections, and cooling and fuel systems.

Every one of us who have designed anything that is dependant on multi-system integregation understands this. My mechanical engineers can design a bearing and the coincident surfaces with great success given the proper data, but they have no idea of total systems integration.

The systems engineers must make all of the damned connections work. After the first test we learn that the electrical harness connections cannot withstand the vibrations, the hydraulic connections are stressed and leak, the fuel lines are too close to the exhaust manifolds, etc.

Great engine and gearbox, but horrible package. The "final build" incorporates all that we have learned by "--- up" into the test car. And then we learn that all of that bench work we based the car on is somewhat flawed.

I am an USF1 optimist, but I grow more of a pessimist every day. We shall see.........

[xpensive]

Being optimistic, I'm hoping that when he says "build" he means final assembly. As in, "all final components in place and tested." If that is not what he means, then the team is in deep ---.

I am an USF1 optimist, but I grow more of a pessimist every day. We shall see.........

I think it rather obvious by now that Windsor has little clue as to what "build" an F1 car actually means, why it is somewhat difficult to precisely interpret that quote, but it is difficult to see it as anything else than yet another xcuse.

In February, we learned they had been working with this project for three years or something, in early fall the team had begun only in June after their FIA-acceptance, now they didn't get going until August because of this or that.

They are still hiring people, even Welshmen I hear, why it's difficult to judge anything coming from the team-principal.

[jddh1]

I remain as hopeful as I was when the announcement was made. However, I am growing more and more pessimistic.

[jon-mullen]

F1Tech is leading a race!

We are 1st in Google's search results for "USF1" for the past 24 hours.

We're 5th in the past week, but I think we can make up some places. We've got a google-yahoo-bing news conglomeration site with no news and the ten-tenths forum in 4th and 3rd. 2nd is just the Photoshopped car joke finally making it to Germany. 1st is the speedTV forum and it's not clear how big the gap is. An overtake may be risky because they're the sanctioning body's favorites, but I believe if we push like hell we can win.

Actually I think all we have to do is say usf1 usf1 a bunch of times.

[Professor]

I think it rather obvious by now that Windsor has little clue as to what "build" an F1 car actually means, why it is somewhat difficult to precisely interpret that quote, but it is difficult to see it as anything else than yet another xcuse.

As you know, Mr. Pensive, I am a guy who appreciates US technology and engineering, and I have business in NC. But, I am getting a little restless from what I am hearing from the team in the public domain.

What I hear privately is a little more optimistic, but in my trips to Charlotte, I have been shown little other than the "contractor" facilities and this has been without any hardware displayed "on rig". It was a "what we can do if we have a chassis" tour of the facilities.

That in itself proved that the capabilities are present, but where is the hardware?

Optimism is, without a doubt, the greatest protagonist of pessimsim.

Hope fails. Meanwhile, cynicism fluorishes.

[marcush.]

Being optimistic, I'm hoping that when he says "build" he means final assembly. As in, "all final components in place and tested." If that is not what he means, then the team is in deep ---.

I suspect that the "final build" of the Brawn was one week before the last possible testing opportunity. They too were dependant on the engine dimensions, gearbox interface, etc. They dealt with it using the proffered drawings, but their final connections were revised once they had the lump in the chassis. This is especially true of auxillary components like elec. harnesses, hydraulic connections, and cooling and fuel systems.

Still they were the best in terms of reliability....

Every one of us who have designed anything that is dependant on multi-system integregation understands this. My mechanical engineers can design a bearing and the coincident surfaces with great success given the proper data, but they have no idea of total systems integration.

experience is called for and proper organisation of the task ahead before starting to draw or fiddling with spanners...systems integration on the hardware side is straight forward .The software guys are the ones who seem to be content having a few tries more until it really works but shrug of the occasional bug.

can only quote Keith Duckworth evelopment is only necessary because of the engineers --- up the initial design.

cable routing and connector design are also in Automotive development packaged
too late into the whole thing and this is the real reason why things tend to get awkward and dodgy...it seems to be a matter off the complicated stuff gets stacked up until the very end and instead of take it into consideration from satrting up the project.
So in F1 with MANDATORY ECU theres a pretty much fixed cabling for the engine ,gearbox layout is also something to complete very early ,and then you got a few sensors at each hub for temps of the brakes and possibly bearings plus brakewear
fuinaly a rearfog light.
To call this complicated and challenging is considering the materials used with connectors easily in the 100€range tefzel wire etc I simply would say this is all simply due to hasty make do firedept activity by guys not aware of the real problems in the environment...
just my 2 cents


The systems engineers must make all of the damned connections work. After the first test we learn that the electrical harness connections cannot withstand the vibrations, the hydraulic connections are stressed and leak, the fuel lines are too close to the exhaust manifolds, etc.

Great engine and gearbox, but horrible package. The "final build" incorporates all that we have learned by "--- up" into the test car. And then we learn that all of that bench work we based the car on is somewhat flawed.

I am an USF1 optimist, but I grow more of a pessimist every day. We shall see.........

[xpensive]

The sad part is that a late comer like Lotus seems to make xcellent progress, which makes Windsor's talk pretty hollow?

[spacepig]

The sad part is that a late comer like Lotus seems to make xcellent progress, which makes Windsor's talk pretty hollow?

The task is considerably easier when you're staring with a complete set of Force India drawings. On the Lotus video just posted on Autosport, they didn't even take the 2009 refueling hatch off of the chassis. USF1 has had to start from scratch, without a current technical director bringing a complete body of current knowledge, without a factory or design infrastructure. Even if they've done some stuff poorly (particularly in the PR department), it will be a very impressive result to show up with a car at all. Of course it's easy for people like you to piss on that effort.

[astracrazy]

Is there any news on potential driver signings?

Sorry i haven't kept up with USF1 lately.Every other new team (apart from Sauber) have signed at least 1 driver, nothing from USF1?

[Richard]

Every one of us who have designed anything that is dependant on multi-system integregation understands this. My mechanical engineers can design a bearing and the coincident surfaces with great success given the proper data, but they have no idea of total systems integration.

Random aside .... As a designer of buildings, everything we do is a one off prototype. At least the car people get to build full scale mock ups and prototypes beforehand.

The F1 equivalent to my world would be for the teams to arrive at Melbourne with a box of parts that have never been fitted together before, nor has each component been tested. Now that would be interesting Perhaps Peter is getting guidance from a structural engineer?