Inside the US F1 Team - Q&A with Ken Anderson
Keen to allay rumours that they may not be ready to take to the grid in 2010, US F1 Team boss Ken Anderson has revealed impressive progress at their North Carolina base, where they are readying their first car for testing early in the New Year…
Q: Ken, we’re hearing about a lot of activity in Charlotte these days. What is going on at US F1 Team?
Ken Anderson: It has been quite a ride since we started the team last year, and has become far more intense since the signing of the Concorde Agreement. Our world headquarters is now complete and fully functional, and the 2010 racecar is in the construction phase.
Q: So the car is finally being built? Isn’t it a little late to get something like that started?
KA: Funny that you ask that question - we get that one a lot. Thanks to our in-house design and engineering staff and the aid of our technical partners, for the last 10 to 12 months, the car has gone through thousands of iterations in a virtual environment. With this virtual design, we can test and be sure that it’s right from structural, design and engineering standpoints, so we don’t have to make a part, test it, break it and start again. Instead, we’ve taken out a lot of the guesswork and can get close to a race-ready piece right off of the machines, which is happening now. Our timing is according to plan, with an early November ‘roller’ and a finished car in time for January 2010 testing.
Q: So who’s building the car? Americans? Europeans? Are you building the car in Charlotte?
KA: I’ll answer the last part of the question first. Yes, we’re building the car in our shop here in Charlotte. America is known as a ‘melting pot’ and our team is a reflection of just that. Americans, Europeans, New Zealanders, Welshmen and more are responsible for the racecar, including many who have high-level experience in the current Formula One environment. Many of our new hires we connected with back in June and July, and they will be joining the team formally at the end of the month. We are very grateful to the current Formula One teams for releasing some of our ‘newest’ team members early - that has been a huge help as we continue to prepare for the 2010 Formula One season.
Q: Let’s talk about what we’re seeing in some of these pictures… what are we looking at here?
KA: In two words, we’re ‘fully equipped’. Our machine shop features three- and five-axis CNC machines; we have a composite shop with autoclaves and a 24-foot CNC cutting table; a complete fab shop; assembly and sub-assembly; electronics; research and development; design and engineering; CFD and aerodynamics; marketing and communications; and a full in-house HD production facility, just to name a few departments. Building a team and a world class manufacturing facility are a work-in-progress but we’re ahead of schedule and are excited about going racing next year.
Q: Can you talk a little about the cost efficiency of manufacturing a Formula One car in the US? How can the operation be cheaper than what we’ve seen out there?
KA: The major cost savings will be that the engineering and production of the cars will be done in the United States. Our technical partners located within a 30-mile radius of our shop contribute to this savings, as there are some departments we don’t have to have in-house, such as a wind tunnel, shaker rig, K&C machine, additional CFD support and a centre of gravity machine. What most people see - the transporters, motor coaches and the ‘lifestyle’ side of Formula One - are a much smaller part of the overall budget and will be located at our European facility, which we’ll tell you about soon!
