Ecclestone forces USF1 name change

UPDATE This rumor is upgraded to 'fact' today. USF1, the new American team for 2010, has been asked by Bernie Ecclestone and Formula One Management (FOM) to change its name.

The North Carolina-based outfit will forthwith be known as 'USGPE' (US Grand Prix Engineering), after trademark-owner FOM objected to the use of the abbreviation 'F1' in the title.

Existing competitors including Renault, Force India and Toyota all use 'F1' in their respective names, but it is believed FOM allows these descriptors because they precede the word 'Team'.

The only exception is Williams, whose official trading name is 'WilliamsF1'.

Also at the request of FOM, Force India has changed its official logo for the 2009 season. Previously, the team's 'FI' (including the letter I) logo resembled 'F1' (including the number 1).

This year, the logo features a dot above the I, differentiating it from the official title of the series.

03/03/09 The website of the team USF1 (www.usf1.com) now resolves to address www.usgpe.com (According to our research USGPE means U.S. Grand Prix Engineering). Why? Because rumor has it that Bernie Ecclestone and FOM own the term F1 and no one can use it in their name.

Ken Anderson, was the owner of domain names: grandprixengineering.net and usgpe.com.

No team has the right to use the term F1 in the name of the team unless it is associated with the word "Team" or "Racing", for example, Honda Racing F1 and Renault F1 Team. In the case of the name USF1 the term F1 was part of the name of the team.