USF1 will announce Monday that it has signed Argentine driver Jose Maria Lopez for 2010.

Adrian Valles has emerged as the leading candidate to complete USF1's 2010 driver lineup.

The 23-year-old Spaniard, who tested with Silverstone based Midland and Spyker a few years ago, returned to GP2 in 2008 and last season became the champion of the Superleague Formula series.

A report in the Spanish sports daily Marca said his talks with USF1 about a one year contract are "well advanced", with an announcement possibly imminent.

"Sorry, I can't comment," Valles, who attended the Valencia test on Wednesday, is quoted as saying by Diario Informacion.

That newspaper said a representative of the driver flew from Spain to England on Wednesday to finalise the contract with USF1 sporting director Peter Windsor

It got hot in the kitchen for a while because of my posts, but the situation is now so chaotic and the lying taking place borders on complete fraud.

The car is easily 2 months away from being complete--and thats if they had the money and manpower to complete it and they gave decision making to the appropriate people.
Ken couldn't make payroll at the end of January and finally paid everyone 1/2 of what they were owed this past Monday, the 2nd half is promised this Monday--I'm not holding my breath. About 2/3rds of staff are showing up semi-regularly…who can blame them..there is little to work on.

Everything is hand to mouth -- all of the suppliers are on COD terms if they will supply at all. We haven't seen a Cosworth because they still owe 2.5M euros for them. We have no materials to turn into parts--but assumes that we'd have drawings to produce parts from Anderson Jr….another complete incompetent that barely got his High School diploma!

The boys in the carbon shop don't have the drawings or the tooling they need to produce the tub, let alone the entire car. The tub alone is weeks away from being able to send for FIA testing. At least they don't have to worry about making the suspension pieces--they are all going to be crafted from steel! No wheels, tires or brakes are in the shop, the transmission hasn't been seen either.

Poor Pechito…he shows up yesterday and there is no tub for him to sit in or to get a seat fitting in. He's told--"thats what happens when the money comes in late"

Like it's his fault…Peter and Ken are perhaps the worst managers F1 has ever seen. Peter and Ken convince themselves that they are brilliant businessmen, when they don't understand the basics of an org chart, chain of command, delegation of responsibility..not a single person knows their role, responsibility or job function and if they are--they aren't allowed to do it. The basics of management require that in order to make people accountable, they must have the authority and the financial ability to make decisions in their area of responsibility---Ken will have none of that!.

Ken makes every decision himself despite being surrounded by real F1 engineering, production and marketing & communications experts that would do a much better job if left to do it. When challenged on any decision or direction, your job is usually threatened or he leaves for Starbucks to avoid the confrontation. We were all told the team had 3 years funding and Ken professed he wanted to be, "the dumbest guy in the room", nothing could be further from the truth…the whole adventure has been built on one lie after another and tightly controlled by Ken and his flavor-of-the-day believers.

When he can't make payroll…he goes to Daytona to try and drum up money from unsuspecting gentleman racers who think they are "investing" in something…the dream has turned into a con job.

We think Bernie is on to them and Hurley must be at this point too. Any reasonable person could see how mis-managed the whole operation is.

Its all so sad--the opportunity lost, the dream investor scammed….. dream to nightmare due to extreme mismanagement and the egos of K & P.

If the cancer were removed, real management and investment installed-we could make a go of it--but not until Spain……at the earliest.

I can't wait to see what kind witch hunt transpires from this post! Screw them--getting the truth out will hopefully create some transparency to their scheme.

Others at the shop are talking too http://www.motorsportforums.com/foru...136228&page=12

The rumors about USF1 continue. The tub the team claimed in December may have been a mock-up that cannot be built into a production tub. Since then there’s a production tub, but it is still incomplete, not yet ready for a crunch test.
If it wasn’t on Friday, a missed payroll will likely be made up soon, Murphy hears. But it seems a long shot for the team to make any of the first three races, at least with a car of their own design.
The big rumored is that controlling owner Chad Hurley is disappointed with the current team management, and will provide significant additional funding only if the team is able to meet agreed-to progress targets. Of course they’re in a bit of a Catch-22, given that the current cash starved position makes it difficult at best to perform. According to rumors there was a “sweat equity” deal with current team senior management, and that deal includes progress clauses that would allow for their (forced) departure. Murphy can’t verify that (unless it happens), but it’s widely enough believed that others in the sport are positioning themselves to become a ‘rescue team’ on the assumption it’s true.
A US-based group is preparing to propose a ‘take-over’ of the project, as is a British. The latter would move the operation to the UK, throwing most current staff overboard. Any change has to come with the acquiescence of Hurley.
Both those groups and the current USF1 management are battling to acquire the complete and crunch tested Campos/Dallara chassis to cover those early events. (Clearly there are many in the sport – from Bernie on down - who don’t believe Campos is going to make it.) Meanwhile, Stefan Grand Prix (Serbian Zoran Stefanovich, previously referred to here as ‘the Russians’) is sitting on the sideline with the ex-Toyota F1 stuff (Zoran might want to check that accelerator) hoping a failed team drops a pair of grid spots into its lap.

Meanwhile, Stefan Grand Prix (Serbian Zoran Stefanovich, previously referred to here as ‘the Russians’) is sitting on the sideline with the ex-Toyota F1 stuff (Zoran might want to check that accelerator) hoping a failed team drops a pair of grid spots into its lap.

Brian Bonner is no longer Business Development at USF1, America's Formula 1 Team

It’s said that ‘with tears in his eyes’ USF1 guiding light Peter Windsor told Lopez, his father and his close associate – F1 TV producer Felipe McGough – that the team will miss the first three races of the season and probably thus the whole championship.

USF1 co-founder and team principal Ken Anderson finally breaks the financially-troubled F1 2010 newcomer's silence - by admitting that the team has approached the FIA to be allowed to miss the first four grands prix of the forthcoming campaign

158. USF1 Closes. Lending to Loles Led to Larceny. Audi Ignores ALMS.

Incompetence: Anderson out the back door as USF1 closes the front.
USF1 closed the doors without paying its employees at noon today. Ken Anderson slunk out the back door without a word to those headed for North Carolina’s unemployment office…but that could be problematical.
The staff was told this was a “furlough while a reorganization” could take place. So, don’t pay the staff? Strikes the Bear as the same kind of manure Anderson and company’s been shoveling all along. Windsor was also nowhere to be found around the Charlotte facility when the staff was given the bad news. Perhaps we’ve seen the end of both of them?
Consider this: Murphy believes that by putting its employees on “unpaid leave,” while claiming they are “technically employed” USF1 makes them unable to collect unemployment compensation from North Carolina. It also saves USF1 from being responsible for those payments. The Bear’s waiting to hear how those applications for compensation are treated.
Murphy was quiet after his comments February 23, mostly because this train was on the tracks. The short version is that Charlie would report complete disarray in Charlotte (hell, he might just have read the Bear and saved the airfare), and the FIA would pull the entry, with only a glimmer of hope that a bond might secure the team’s grid spot for 2010. Now that latter seems to be the “official story” – that the staff is only being furloughed, and will be called back. Murphy really believes that’s true – he’s got friends in Charlotte – but doesn’t believe it will work out that way.
During the Bear’s holiday from this story, he was entertained by F1 bloggers who claimed all kinds of nonsense, the best of which was that “Hurley was being blocked by Anderson.” Murphy’s just a stuffed animal, but he knows enough math to know that 1 vote doesn’t beat 4. The same bloggers cooked up a long list of “agreements” to merge with Campos, or Stefan F1. It’s always been hard to make sense of those things. Possible? Maybe, since Campos is still looking for a way to cure its default on the Dallara. But none of it likely. Deck chairs on the Titanic.
There’s an assumption, it seems, that dreaming up an idea to put video on the web makes one a competent businessman. It clearly doesn’t. The principal dithered, sending his friend hither and yon when action to fix the core problem was long overdue. The time to fix this was in October, and was long since past by December. Sending poor Parris to Italy and Spain in February didn’t even have the advantage of nice Mediterranean weather – the time for that was October.
Murphy made the case for the major management change public in February, but it was already a forlorn hope. There was no Obi-Wan waiting in the wings.
Complicating whatever comes next is that Frank Williams and his friends in the middle of the grid are as likely to invite the left-over Toyota program join them as chickens are to invite the cat into the henhouse. A little understanding of the concorde – short version again, money is distributed on the basis of the season’s total points scored – is all that’s needed to know that Stefan F1 might cost Frank tens of millions of dollars.

As far I know, Stefan GP could race in Bahrain," said the F1 chief executive.

The USF1 Team have indicated that they will not be in a position to participate in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship. Having considered the various options, the FIA confirms that it is not possible for a replacement team to be entered for the Championship at this late stage.

In the coming days the FIA will announce details of a new selection process to identify candidates to fill any vacancies existing at the start of the 2011 season.