USGPE (fire up the rumor factory)

aparrently a disgruntled USGPE employee posting this to grandprix.com

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.

I really hope this isnt true. Having a US effort means a lot to F1 in the USA, especially considering that there isnt even a race here any more.

http://forum.grandprix.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10844&start=270#p462720

I can just see the sponsorship logos on the car now: Goldman Sachs, AIG....

It is sad. That guy must have big political connections and nothing else. Doomed to failure. Hey, maybe a TARP bailout? Yeah, take the money left, give it to Congress along with a promise of x% of the bailout, get the bailout, then go out of business. That's how it's done in America.

If this is true, than it shows the dangers of having more money than brains, especially when all that money is not enough.

OR, these guys are crazy like a fox. In an enterprise this cash-soaked, a couple million here and there won't be missed. Ol' Ken could be stashing some cash, especially since he's hitting up "gentlemen racers" for "donations" as stated previously.

Think about it. The whole enterprise has the veneer of legitimacy. There's a design, a tub (such as it is), an "engine program" (sans any actual engines), and a legit driver. If the project fails, everybody feels bad, talks about how it had such promise, and goes home. The creditors get paid cents on the dollar, completely unaware the whole enterprise was a sham from the start.

THAT'S how it's done in America.

Lessee, we'll have some producers. One will be skilled at hitting up "gentlemen racers" for cash. Certain fantasies may be involved. Each "investor" will receive something like 30% of "the profits." Hit up 100 people like that, promising each 30% of "the profits" for their "investment." As long as you don't have any profits, you're way ahead. Now, we just need to make sure we produce the WORST F1 team (or play, whatever) the world has ever seen, worst driver, worst motor, worst car, etc. We'll call the team "Springtime for Hitler" and that should just about do it.

Have I seen this before somewhere?

I'm pretty sure that's the same business model GW used for all his previous failed businesses.

Did I just out flounder the flounder king?

Dr. Hess wrote: Lessee, we'll have some producers. One will be skilled at hitting up "gentlemen racers" for cash. Certain fantasies may be involved. Each "investor" will receive something like 30% of "the profits." Hit up 100 people like that, promising each 30% of "the profits" for their "investment." As long as you don't have any profits, you're way ahead. Now, we just need to make sure we produce the WORST F1 team (or play, whatever) the world has ever seen, worst driver, worst motor, worst car, etc. We'll call the team "Springtime for Hitler" and that should just about do it. Have I seen this before somewhere?

Mel Brooks floated the idea but Bernie Madoff turned it into fantasmagorical reality. These guys go one step further because they "produced" something (the tub). So Madoff's model takes one step back into the Brooksian with tangible concrete evidence something was actually being done.

All one needs is just enough cred to make people believe you're serious.

wow, I was looking forward to US GPE, mainly because of the train wreck aspect, but I didn't expect it was going this wrong...

I hope this is not true, but from the start, I kinda thought this would be the case.

sigh I was really wanting to see an American team race in F1.

For giggles, I stopped by USF1 a few weeks ago to see what was going on. They are using Hall of Fame Racing's old Nascar shop to work out of. I walked away being very disappointed. Leads me to believe this team is just a way for someone to make (or launder) money. They don't appear to be serious about being an F1 team, or any kind of race team for that matter. It seems that America and F1 will never be on the same page. For anyone interested, Google maps and the address 9500 Twin Lakes Parkway, Charlotte NC will give you a view of their U.S. base. You can even scroll up the page to see Bam Racing's Nascar shop and compare the size of the buildings.

More bad news...

ESPN F1 - US F1

Looks like their building is for sale.

i think they were saying the owners of that paticular business complex is selling the adjcent buildings which were BAM Racing and Robby Gordon's race shop, but i oculd be mistaken

http://jalopnik.com/5473765/report-usf1-to-fold-youtube-founder-out?skyline=true&s=i

interestingly this was also posted today

AUTOSPORT's Dieter Rencken reports that with US F1 far behind in building its own planned Formula 1 chassis at its Charlotte shop, team backer Chad Hurley, the founder of YouTube, sent his representatives last week to Dallara's base in Parma, Italy, to investigate the feasibility of purchasing the entire Campos Meta project, reportedly facing a financial crisis, with the aim of utilizing the cars for US F1. The team founded by Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson has as yet signed only one driver – Argentine F1 rookie Jose-Maria Lopez. Campos Meta has signed Bruno Senna, but has appeared to have made little progress beyond that announcement

http://www.racer.com/us-f1-to-buy-dallara-chassis/article/163914/?DCMP=EMC-RACER_DAILY

as much as I really hope, I am not holding my breath that it will work out.

autosport link

All remaining staff placed on unpaid leave.

Toast. And unfortunately the FIA is not going to allow Stefan GP to compete either... I guess they didn't buy a Cosworth.

http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/formula-1-news/229266/official-us-f1-out-and-no-replacement/