The Cypher Group has withdrawn its bid to compete in the 2011 F1 championship.
The American group released a statement saying:
We remain completely committed to developing a credible and viable Formula One team and were able to raise a considerable amount of sponsorship and interest in recent months. However after much deliberation, we have decided that the budget we have is not sufficient to allow us to pursue the project in a manner befitting the series. It was not an easy decision, but one made out of respect for the FIA Formula One World Championship and our loyal supporters.
GP2 team ART abandoned its plans to form an F1 team earlier this month.
Read more: 2011 F1 drivers and teams
SoLiDG (@solidg)
30th July 2010, 20:15
Time to invest in HRT?
Chris P
30th July 2010, 20:18
So who does that leave? Stephan GP, Jacques/Durango…?
BasCB (@bascb)
31st July 2010, 8:54
Don’t forget Epsilon Euskadi, the Bask-spanish team with the high tech facility Todt visited at the start of the year.
Maybe this is FIA strategy. Put questions to the applicants, let them show their backers, prove they have money.
Repeat until there remains only 1 candidate who is persistant enough and has a budget in place.
Stephen_P83
30th July 2010, 20:23
Is Epsilon Euskadi still considering an entry?
GQsm
30th July 2010, 20:35
Yes and they should probably get it. They seem the most capable of the ones we know of.
Spectator
30th July 2010, 22:44
no another spanish poor team nooooo
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
30th July 2010, 23:33
Actually, Euskadi know what they’re doing.
However, I have heard that there are financial strings attached.
sato113
30th July 2010, 20:24
bring on Stephan GP!
hopefully they’ll have the 2010 toyota beast changed to 2011 spec.
Lord Stig (@lord-stig)
30th July 2010, 21:05
it is Stefan GP!
KlBD
31st July 2010, 5:40
how about Steve GP? :]
James
30th July 2010, 20:25
At least they are honest with themselves, with the FIA and FOM. The USA could ill afford another American entry head the same way as USF1 did.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
30th July 2010, 22:37
Especially considering that it’s mostly former USF1 employees…
Cacarella
30th July 2010, 20:27
I think the FIA’s plan is to stall the decision process to the point where all the new entries will eventually drop out. Then they just award the entry to the last team standing – which will either be the craziest or dumbest.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
30th July 2010, 22:38
Which would be Stefan GP right?
BasCB (@bascb)
31st July 2010, 8:56
I am starting to think that’s the strategy as well. With ART being among the first to back out it makes sense to believe the FIA do it like that.
On a positive note, the team surviving has probably had to provide all information on backers they have, maybe already have had to show technical details of their car desing and must be very persistant to keep up hope.
Fred Schechter
30th July 2010, 20:47
USA! USA!! and,,, what?
CRAP!!!
Cacarella
30th July 2010, 20:49
LOL! – I wish I could just leave it at that but the comment was too short. – Now it’s too long!
US_Peter (@us_peter)
30th July 2010, 22:38
I was thinking the same thing. It really would be great to have a US team and a US race.
SoLiDG (@solidg)
30th July 2010, 20:56
It’s a shame it takes so long. The chosen team must be ready to but the 2010 toyota to get a car in time.
Lord Stig (@lord-stig)
30th July 2010, 21:04
It would appear there just is not the sponsorship money for the US based start up teams. The amount of money needed just to even have a functioning factory are massive. For example USF1 spent $17,000,00 on their outfit before they failed to build a car. Also I think Cypher Group do not want to repeat that, and destroy any hope of making a team in the future.
BasCB (@bascb)
31st July 2010, 8:59
I suppose the refundable 16 million Bernie instated will not help eather.
And with so little time, it gets harder to make the backers hold to their promises as the chances of building the car are slowly falling with the late announcement.
Maybe that’s why Epsilon Euskadi are still in the running, i suppose their facilities are already up and running, so they can invest in doing part of the designwork instead.
Calum
30th July 2010, 21:08
I thought Carlos Slim, the richest? guy in the wordld should have invested in HRT, after all he is Hispanic and it’s a Spanish team.
Villeneuvd Racing -?
Epsilon – Are they still going for 13th team?
Durango – ?
Cypher – X
USF1 – X
ART – X
out of all of then I wanted epsilon or cypher for cool namessake :P
remember last year that fake brabham? Whatever happened to them?
James
31st July 2010, 19:45
I think Carlos Slim is a different kind of Hispanic, a Mexican =P I remember last year there was something like 13 entries for the 3 (eventually 4) new team spaces.
I think I remember Lola and Wolf being just two of those names – but no word from them this time round…
f1yankee
30th July 2010, 21:18
can’t say i’m disappointed. slightly relieved, actually.
TommyB (@tommyb89)
30th July 2010, 21:31
Disappointed. Would have liked to have seen Summerton in F1.
HounslowBusGarage (@hounslowbusgarage)
30th July 2010, 22:24
I think that’s fundamentally bad news.
It would have been the perfect situation to have had a one-year old American team at the next US GP in Austin. It would have guaranteed US media attention. The best we can hope for now is some kind of US particiaption in an existing team (Summerton to Torro Rosso in 2012?), otherwise the Austin GP will be viewed by mainstram America as “a loada foreigners in town and we paid for it”.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
30th July 2010, 22:41
That’s kind of why I was hoping they’d make it. Like you said, the reaction in Austin won’t be nearly as receptive with no US teams or drivers.
f1yankee
30th July 2010, 22:57
do you think an american team showing (very) poorly would draw a better reaction than no americans at all? i doubt it, since eveyone loves a winner. the fans will come, and they will cheer for ferrari, mclaren, schumacher, et cetera, just like we always have.
Journeyer (@journeyer)
1st August 2010, 8:23
That’s not how it works Stateside. America rarely cares for athletes beyond their shores. If there’s no successful US athletes, you won’t get much airtime on the news. Case in point: NASCAR.
rmac923
30th July 2010, 22:32
There won’t be a 13th team in 2011. In fact, we’ll be lucky to retain 12.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
30th July 2010, 22:43
Yeah, whatever happened to them selecting a 14th team as backup so that we wouldn’t have another USF1/Stefan GP incident where there’s a team ready to go that isn’t allowed to race and the team that is allowed to race can’t. Haven’t heard any mention of a backup team in months. I wonder if they gave up on that plan…
BasCB (@bascb)
31st July 2010, 9:04
With the speed these entrants are backing out, we might end up with not even a 13th team being nominated in the first place (Cacarella suspects, that’s exactly what the FIA is now targetting to, see post above).
I hope some of these outfits look get to take up relations with existing teams (HRT, Sauber and maybe Torro Rosso might be interested in cooperation with Cypher – USF1 gearbox? and ART) if they have to pull out of getting their own F1 team
Pinball - roadography.com
31st July 2010, 4:02
I personally think that if the FIA wants to be serious about maintaining a steady number of teams in Formula 1 then they need to maintain the current world championship and introduce lower tier regional Formula 1 championships.
For example, an American championship, an European championship, and an Asian-Pacific championship. The idea would be that the regional championships would operate to the same spec and rules, but with a budget cap. The FIA could also make it that the bottom three teams in the world championship each year drop back the regional championship, and the top performing team from each regional championship steps up to the world championship.
The benefits would include, more access for the fans; every weekend there would an F1 race happening somewhere. Lower costs for sponsors; meaning smaller companies could get involved. Furthermore having more races in each region of the would certainly help develop a grass roots following, so when the world championship came to down the grandstands at the tracks would actually full.
Joey-Poey
31st July 2010, 5:37
I kinda dig this idea, but it’s probably even MORE expensive to run.
Icthyes
31st July 2010, 17:42
I’ve been thinking about something like this for a long while, ever since childhood in fact; I always wondered why there was British/Euro F3 but no regional F1.
I never put masses of thought into it, so seeing your idea has made me believe it could happen! Also, the B-teams could be in there, although that’s only Toro Rosso at the moment.
MouseNightshirt
30th July 2010, 22:47
Epsilon Eskudai (Spelling?) seems to me to be the most viable outfit at the moment.
Joey-Poey
30th July 2010, 23:25
This is getting rather pathetic. I kinda wonder if everyone got spooked by the USF1 situation.
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
31st July 2010, 3:53
I wonder whether in the end they will find any team even to take that 13th spot. UNLUCKY 13 MAY BE.
dsob
31st July 2010, 6:18
Of course teams are withdrawing their bids. It’s August already(almost) and they would be expected to have a competitive car ready for …what?…February? Ridiculous.
As always, FiA fails to realize that they need to give a team more lead time. Ideally, FiA should announce this year a new team to start the 2012 season. That would give ample time for a team starting from scratch to prepare.
BasCB (@bascb)
31st July 2010, 9:07
The cynics are starting to feel, this is exactly what Todt and Bernie are targetting to do right now. Not having a 13th team to join the fray next year.
Possibly these entrants are advised to look for ways of cooperation with the less founded existing teams in some way.
Icthyes
31st July 2010, 17:44
Not only the teams but also the rules should be announced two years beforehand. We all remember the budget cap fiasco.
Oliver
31st July 2010, 7:26
Better now than later.
At this rate, the FIA should just approve a new team for 2012 and not 2011 because any team starting so late might not even make it past the 107% cut.