Franck Montagny has been in touch with Team USF1 about a seat for next season while continuing to keeping his options open in ALMS and IndyCar.

The French sports daily L’Equipe on Wednesday said the 31-year-old, a former Renault and Toyota test driver who also raced for part of the 2006 season with the now defunct Super Aguri team, had exchanged emails with the USF1’s sporting director Peter Windsor.

“They are having these kind of talks with all third drivers of the existing teams,” Frenchman Montagny said. “Nothing has been signed.”

Montagny is to compete at Petit Le Mans later this month with Peugeot and recently raced for Andretti Green in IndyCar. He has also been linked to Gil de Ferran’s proposed new IndyCar team for next season.

Montagny now has added his name to a growing list of potential “senior driver” positions at USF1 for 2010.  There is no doubt that the silly season is in full motion, so who would you like to see in the cockpit next year?

Loeb is the WRC's most dominate driver

Ultra-successful world rally driver Sebastien Loeb has reportedly made an approach to Team USF1.

Peter Windsor is quoted as telling the French sports daily L’Equipe, “Somebody representing Loeb called us but I won’t give details of the conversation.”

Ever since Loeb, 35, tested Red Bull’s F1 car over the winter, his rising interest in a more serious foray has been rumored, including recently putting his name forward as Sebastien Bourdais’ Toro Rosso replacement.

Windsor added, “He is an incredible talent and he would definitely make things interesting in F1. We are looking more on the American side but are going to take him seriously.”

Loeb also confirmed the USF1 approach to L’Equipe.

“I wanted to know if a team was really interested in me for F1. Someone contacted this new team but I don’t know what happened.

“I am enjoying myself in the WRC and am on the verge of extending my contract with Citroen. But if I get the opportunity to do a couple of races in 2010 when the calendars don’t clash then why not?”

This is another option for Team US F1’s seasoned driver position that Ken Anderson alluded to on Sunday night’s Wind Tunnel program.  Loeb undoubtably has experenice behind the wheel, just not much in a F1 cockpit. Alex Wurz, Brawn GP’s 2009 test driver is also among others mentioned for the senior driver position.

YouTube spans multiple platforms

By now you may have heard that Chad Hurley, co-founder and CEO of YouTube, is the major investor in USF1, but what’s it mean for the team? For starters, keep in mind that it’s not YouTube that’s involved, but Chad himself.

Anyone who doubts the power of new media should check out what good ideas are worth – search engine juggernaut Google bought YouTube from Hurley and his partners for $1.65 billion. And the guy is just 33. So while a financial investment will buy a lot of carbon fiber, I believe Hurley’s true contribution is his business mind.

Formula 1 has always prided itself on attracting the sharpest brains, but Team US F1 will have some envious eyes looking at it from now on after signing a deal with YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley to be its primary investor.

Hurley will bring with him money and, perhaps more importantly, the brains that have helped turn YouTube into a global phenomenon. His business acumen will be a huge asset to the team – and could well benefit F1 as a whole.

Q: What got you interested in F1 and the US F1 project?

Team US F1 has confirmed that Chad Hurley, co-founder and CEO of YouTube, has signed up on a multi-year arrangement as the organizations “primary investor”.

The press release said that Hurley, 33, will “provide visionary guidance and corporate strategy expertise” to the new-in-2010 outfit headed by Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor.  It was not explained if the deal involves sponsorship by the YouTube video-sharing website, whose relationship with Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One Management has been a difficult one.  But Peter’s recent interview on SPEED TV indicated that YouTube will play a very intricate interactive role in promoting the team off the track.

“Getting in on the ground floor of a project of this size and scope is a tremendous opportunity, and I look forward to helping shape the US F1 vision and corporate strategy for years to come,” said Hurley.

Speaking to Autosport, Ken Anderson had the following to say about the team and the car:

“Quite a lot of it is ready to manufacture. The chassis is locked down, because we were waiting to hear if the (Cosworth) engine rev limit was 20,000rpm or 18,000rpm”.  The FOTA/FiA battle has now settled that at 18k.

“The chaps will now start building the chassis in August. We will have it rolling on the ground in late September, without bodywork or stuff, and then the bodywork will get added in October. Ken Anderson”.

Anderson also spoke of the growing squad and his closeness to signing a deal with Spain’s Aragon circuit to allow them to use the facility as a European base. This is something USF1 wanted all along, and although the car will be designed and manufactured in Charlotte, the distance involved between North America and where the majority of races are held means that a European base makes more sense.

“We were only approved a few weeks ago and it wasn’t prudent to order $5 million of machines until we were there. We have about 20 staff at the moment, but we have got 20 or 30 starting in August. The thing is we need people to run machines, and there was no point having them until the machines are there”.

Anderson went on to say,“The Aragon facility is a fantastic facility, the people there are very nice, very helpful. It is a great place for winter testing, and we would like to have our drivers based there… and run all the time.”

He also pointed out that should the Aragon deal not come together, they are also evaluating Paul Ricard in France as a possible base, the French test track proving popular with many current Formula One teams for testing purposes.

Nothing much has been said about the driver line-up, although the team must be in talks with some drivers at the moment. Last week, Danica Patrick all but ruled out a switch to Formula One, proving what many had predicted. Speaking with the LA Times, Patrick was asked if she had nailed down her chosen category for next year (IndyCar, NASCAR or F1), to which Danica replied with “it’s probably not F1”.

photo credit ©brian dowling

Danica Patrick has all but ruled out switching to Formula One next year. The 27-year-old American female racer, who currently drives in the United States’ premier IndyCar open wheel category, had been linked with the new USF1 team for 2010.

However speculation also hints at a NASCAR move for Danica, and when questioned about her plans for 2010 is quoted as saying by the LA Times: “I’d say it’s probably not F1.”

She said she has little interest in the USF1 outfit, whose principals Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor are targeting American drivers and have named Patrick specifically.

“Not really, and the fact is that to my knowledge they’ve never called,” she revealed.

In 2005, Patrick turned down the offer of a demonstration run in a Formula One car at Indianapolis, and last year Honda Chief Executive Nick Fry’s invitation of a proper test drive reportedly went unanswered.

“I’ve had opportunities to take it a step further with Formula One, and I don’t want to lead anyone down a path. It’s not in my heart to go there,” Patrick said.

She moved to England in the late 1990s to advance her formative career in open wheelers, but for several years has settled on the American scene.

“I’ve explored Europe before,” Patrick said in Los Angeles. “I particularly like to be here and I like my family and I like my friends and I like my creature comforts of my home country.”

Source: GMM ©CAPSIS International

Following Formula 1 here in the States is sort of like voting for a write-in candidate – ‘damn if the guy doesn’t have some good ideas’, but nobody’s ever heard of him!

It goes without mention that while F1 is huge the world over, it barely registers back here at home. Not having a Grand Prix on US soil (not to mention a team) is part of the problem, but in a series – dominated by Germans, Italians, Brazilians and Brits – it seems hard for many U.S. motor sports fans to swallow.

We do get decent broadcast coverage and the Internet is full of news, so it’s not all bad. But just once I’d like to walk into a sports bar and see Peter Windsor getting a few words in with a monosyllabic Kimi Raikkonen before a race or hearing Rubino’s latest conspiracy theory. Another problem with F1 in the States is the time difference, so I’d have to be in that bar pretty early on Sunday morning.

So what do you think? With Team US F1 on the grid next season, are we going to experience a surge of American enthusiasm for the sport?

Is there any part of following the sport that’s tied to nationalism for you or any of your F1 friends?

I for one, do feel some pride that there’ll be a hometown team to get behind and cheer. But I want to know what you think.

And here’s one consolation to consider the next time you’re sitting at home watching a race by yourself, at least being an American F1 fan is easier than being an American cricket fan.

USF1 co-owner Peter Windsor has refused to confirm whether YouTube will be sponsoring his F1 team when it takes to the grid next season.

US F1 will enter F1 in 2010 and preparations for their debut are well underway, including the search for sponsors.  And, according to speculation, one potentional sponsor is YouTube as Windsor and his USF1 co-owner Ken Anderson entertained YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley at the British GP.

“I did see Chad at Silverstone, he was around and it was good to see him there,” Windsor told SPEED TV.  “People have tied him to our team, which is incredibly flattering, and who knows?

“We’ve got plenty of announcements that we’ll be making shortly, and we’ll be announcing the identities of all of our investors and quite a lot of other stuff as well, really exciting stuff.”

“At the moment all I can say is that we’ve just got our heads down doing what is immediately important to us, which is building the team now that we’ve got our entry.”

“But we have got a great investor group and it’s going to take us into the 21st century in a way that you guys have never imagined.”

The last statement has insiders speculating on an exclusive US F1 content delivered exclusively on YouTube.  This would not be surprising considering Windsor’s view of Formula 1 as ‘entertainment first’.

photo credit ©brian dowling

Having secured a spot on the 2010 grid, Team US F1 expects to select drivers for the North Carolina-based outfit “pretty soon”.

Co-founder Peter Windsor, a British Formula One journalist for SPEED TV and the voice at official qualifying and race press conferences, said even though the FIA only confirmed the team’s application a few weeks ago, a shortlist of potential American drivers already exists.

“We already have had the first of our week of evaluation of young Americans, and there are some very good American drivers out there.

“We will be making a decision about that pretty soon,” the 57-year-old told BBC radio.

photo credit ©lat photographic