Design nearly done on USGPE F1 car

Even though the budget cap rules are still not 100% guaranteed, the USGPE team is convinced it will be standing at the grid next season. The US Formula 1 team has finished its first drawings of the car and according to the team's sporting director Peter Windsor the team is confident it has a future in F1. The first thing that needs to be said is that we are very impressed with the way in which the FIA has made it easier for new teams to come into Formula 1," Windsor told GP Week in an interview. "We wouldn't be here now unless that was happening. Obviously there need to be growing pains with any new system.

"But from our point of view it doesn't change much. We are who we are, we're doing what we're doing and we've been planning this for three or four years to the budget at which we're currently operating. We haven't changed our budget and it perfectly dovetails with a lot of the numbers that are currently being mentioned. We've got our heads down, we've just finished the CAD drawings of the car and it's all very exciting."

Speaking about KERS the team is still undecided whether or not to race with the system. Windsor explained: "A lot of that depends on where we're going with the regulations. If it's a choice we probably would not go with KERS, but it's potentially going to be mandatory for every team and we have to presume that's going to be the case. You can't design a car on belief, you have to design it on what we're being told now which is, as we understand it, that KERS will be on every car but that may not be the case in a few months' time. Like everybody in Formula One we think KERS has good and bad points. But is it a complication that we need and an additional cost expense that we need? It's a debatable point."