MOTORSPORT: USF1 folds, Red Bull's high hopes

Webber blasts 'Mickey Mouse' F1 wannabes
Little more than a week until the first practice session for the opening Formula One grand prix of the year, in Bahrain, and it is now obvious that new American team USF1 has collapsed.

USF1 had sought exemption from the first four GPs this season to get its car completed, then it asked to be excused from this season and to come in next year, but now

This is not only ignominy for the American effort but for F1 more generally, and particularly for the sport's governing body, the Federation Internationale  de l'Automobile (FIA), that selected four applicants from 14 seeking to get on the GP grids this year.

Serbian outfit StefanGP is in the wings, wanting to take up USF1's place and may have a media conference later today. It is reported to have a deal with Toyota to take over the Japanese manufacturer's abandoned F1 team, although we suspect the extent of any deal has been overstated.

StefanGP appears to have the support of F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone, but to get a start in Bahrain next week it will need the green light from the FIA as well as the approval of all the other teams -- which is hardly likely.

Meanwhile, we have come across some colourful quotes from Australia's F1 driver, Mark Webber, on the new F1 teams -- the others are Virgin/Manor, Lotus, and Campos Meta. Elsewhere on

"It's embarrassing. It's incredible that people who haven't yet turned a wheel take part in GPs. It's the sort of stuff from Mickey Mouse, or Tom and Jerry. It would make more sense to field Valentino Rossi with his bike on the grid," Webber said.

"He (Rossi) is great. F1 needs a character like him."

On the season ahead for him in Red Bull Racing's new RB6 car, Webber has said: "I aim to win more grands prix than I did last year (two). Let's say we have a great opportunity to do something special."

And he vowed: "For my first victory of 2010 I will do something for the fans; it won't be as brilliant Rossi-style, but enough to thank them."

But Webber would not declare that he can be world champion.

"Don't expect me to say I'll win the title this year, that would be suicidal," he said. "With limited fuel on board the RB6 is super quick. The tyres have gone a step backwards for lack of competition, the lap times have increased, but the aerodynamics are amazing.

"Anyway, it's early to say. It will be a very close championship to the end, and it will be very spectacular, I guarantee."

While Webber is guarded about his championship chances, Mr Red Bull -- Austrian tycoon Dietrich Mateschitz -- has said he expects his (main) team and one of its drivers -- the other is German wonderboy Sebastian Vettel - to finish with world titles.

"We have realistic expectations that of course progressed each year," Mateschitz said. "Last year we wanted to finish among the top three teams, which we achieved. This year we have to fight for the championship because we belong to the three fastest teams.

"The rest is not dependent on us but on FIA decisions, driver errors, reliability, safety car periods and so on. At the start of last season, we were the only team without a double diffuser that could match Brawn's pace.

"If you consider we had to rebuild the car, Vettel had to accept the penalty after Melbourne, he could have been champion already last year. Now we have to continue where we finished last year. There is no guarantee for the championship, but it is a target."

Mateschitz said Vettel and Webber were now ready to fight for the title -- and their rivalry would be good for the team.

"As Sebastian, he (Webber) can too," he said. "Two drivers of equal strength are no problem but a huge advantage, because they push their respective limits. Sebastian had more wins and poles last year than Mark, but on fastest laps they were equal.

"Vettel, of course, is an exceptional personality that might come out maybe in some decades. By his pressure Mark could push his limits remarkably. The fact that Vettel is a product of our young driver scheme is an additional satisfaction for us."

We reported here a year or more ago on the Avalon idea, which would involve the Linfox group of transport magnate Lindsay Fox which owns the Avalon airport.

We said then, and still believe, it would not happen within the life of the existing contract for the Australian GP to be staged at Albert Park -- and within 80-year-old F1 tsar Bernie Ecclestone's lifetime.

Little has changed, other than the FIA-funded CAMS study. A switch of venue is not going to happen in a hurry. A move to Avalon would massively increase the chances of running the race at night, as Ecclestone has wanted.

It also would have the very great appeal of containing the cost of staging the event, on a permanent rather than temporary, circuit - indeed, of potentially moving much of that cost/risk from the Victorian government to private enterprise (Linfox and perhaps partners).

The downside would be that the high-rolling international visitors for the GP would be a lot further away from an Avalon track than inner-Melbourne Albert Park with the transport hassles that would inevitably create.

Our advice: nobody should be getting too excited.

"Rivals claim that one of the key strengths of the Triple Eight Commodores (of Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes) is that their engines, developed through a technical alliance with Paul Morris Motorsport, are as much as 22kW (up) on the team's '09 Ford motors."

That would go a long way to explaining Whincup's complete dominance of the four races so far this season in the Middle East.

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