Feb.6 (GMM) Max Mosley has confirmed reports that a prospective American team is looking into racing in formula one next year
It emerged this week that USF1, headed by Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor, may soon launch a foray to field US-born drivers and personnel and showcase American technology
“They are serious people, but I think they will be the same as everybody else and they need the costs to come down if they want to be competitive,” the FIA president told selected media in London on Thursday
It is believed that USF1 is planning a North Carolina headquarters, possibly with a small Spanish test base, made possible by the current number of overseas races and the new in-season test ban
“I think it would be difficult but not impossible,” Mosley said
Mosley is confident that sweeping cost cuts for next year, despite the likely objections to the intended annual budget of just 50m euros, could lead to a fully-subscribed pitlane of 12 teams in 2010
Should his 50m euro plan not work out, and more teams pull out that cannot be replaced by new entrants, the FIA has other means to guarantee full grids at grands prix, Mosley warned
“In the absolute worst case, we have in our contract with Bernie that if there are insufficient formula one cars we will fill it up with cars from other categories,” he said
“For that to happen would be very unfortunate because at the moment we are in a position to arrange the rules so that we could get independent teams in.”n
