Jan.4 (GMM) Peter Windsor is unhappy that, as in 2009, F1 factories will again shut down this August.
The move, introduced by the FOTA team alliance last year, was billed as a cost-saving initiative.
But some teams including Williams complained that the shutdown only increased costs by subsequently requiring a more intensive effort to catch up on lost time.
USF1 sporting director Windsor wrote in his blog that the August shutdown is to happen again in 2010, following a team meeting earlier this year.
“I was impressed to hear the McLaren guys say that it was a waste of time and that most of their staff had found it all very frustrating, but sadly these were lone voices: the majority of the teams, led by Red Bull, it seemed to me, are firmly committed to the summer shutdown,” he said.
Windsor added that the August shutdown will be particularly frustrating for Charlotte based USF1, because unlike in Europe, “August for Americans is just another working month in which some people maybe take a week or two away”.
He also said the US is “much more industrious than the UK” in general, with business halted for Christmas and New Year’s days, but Europe basically shut down until today.
“That’s 16 valuable days lost in the too-short life of the F1 European winter,” said Windsor.
