USF1 requests permission to miss races!

USF1 co-founder Ken Anderson has admitted that he is in discussions with the FIA to reach an agreement that would allow the new team to miss the first four races of the 2010 Formula 1 season. While optimism is high at Campos after Jose Ramon Carabante took control of the project and appointed Colin Kolles as team director, the situation is far less rosy at USF1. The team has fallen behind in its preparations and is struggling to secure the necessary funding.

In an interview published yesterday in the New York Times, Anderson revealed that USF1 has little chance of making it to Bahrain on March 14th. The team might even miss the Australian, Malaysian, and Chinese outings.

« We are working with the FIA to clarify the number of races we can miss, » Anderson told the daily newspaper. « Ideally, we would miss the first four races and arrive in Barcelona. »

Despite recent revelations that the Concorde Agreement includes a clause allowing teams to miss up to three races before being officially removed from the championship, the FIA clarified earlier this month that new teams would be in violation if they were to miss at least one race.

Anderson wants to believe that the governing body will help to secure his place on the grid: « I suppose anything is possible, » he said when asked about the possibility of fines for missing races. « But what would be the point? Why push us down further when the financial situation is already tight? That is absolutely not the message I am receiving from them. They want to help us, not make us disappear. »

Anderson emphasized that the other co-founder, Peter Windsor, and YouTube investor Chad Hurley are still involved in the project. Windsor even stated earlier this week: « I’m still with the team. »

But the American revealed to the NYT that the progress of the project depended on the level of sponsorship: « We have a schedule in place and if we quickly get responses, which will trigger funding, we will be ready to go. »