A mysterious insider has painted a bleak picture of life inside the USF1 team as they struggle to keep their F1 dreams afloat, blaming Ken Anderson for the team's failings and suggesting that only Chad Hurley can save the team.
The unnamed insider, who spoke at great length to Autosport.com, gave a series of chunks of gossip regarding life within the team that would have made for depressing reading to anyone still hopeful of the American team making the 2010 grid.
Last weekend Anderson, co-founder of the project, admitted that the team had asked the FIA for the right to miss the opening four rounds of the season, with the team's budget plans and car development now too far behind for them to make the grid in Bahrain in just over two week's time.
And the insider explained that the team's staff now believe that only YouTube founder Hurley, who linked up with the team last year, can orchestrate a way for the team to remain on the FIA's entry list.
"We feel Hurley...[has] our best interests [at heart] and also feel Hurley has no intention of abandoning us even though the media has said he's gone with Campos," the insider explained to Autosport under an exciting-sounding 'condition of anonymity'.
The source added that: "With all this talk about where US F1 is at, it's been missed that there are 60+ people who have had to suffer through this for the last two months. All of us left jobs and many of us travelled cross-country for this opportunity."
The staff member explained that evidence of the team's inability to make the grid in Bahrain became apparent as early as December, and they pointed the finger at Anderson as being the source of the delays.
"Going back to early December, it was pretty evident that something was up, in as much as we kept expecting a big push in production starting some time in mid-December, but it never materialised," the source explained.
"Figure [that] we're all pretty experienced in various aspects of car design and build, and we all know what it takes from a time-line standpoint. So when it became apparent the drawing office wasn't releasing drawings at the rate we expected, it started to become clear we could be in trouble.
"All engineering decisions were having to be funnelled through [Ken] Anderson before anything could be signed off. And that's where the hold up was."
The insider suggested that vital work on the team's chassis building was held up for "nearly a month" during December after delays to the lamination process.
They claimed that: "Anderson himself wasn't designing the laminate schedule, but he was in the wings...as early as last October the production manager was collared about the lack of resources, but the managers were put off by saying: 'Well, Ken has a plan'.
"The irony of all this is that there has been precious little in the way of formal planning and documentation. No production schedules, simply very little in the way of planning."
The source claimed that ten employees of the small team based in Charlotte had already left over delays to staff payments and the lack of transparency from the team management.
"Think of it this way," the source ranted, "Ignoring the fact that we were lied to about the budget, if you don't have a car or can't show serious progress in that direction, potential sponsors aren't going to have a tendency to give you money."
They also explained that the team's other co-owner, Peter Windsor, had been doing his best to bring funds in to the team, but that the Englishman was "visibly shocked" when the team on the factory floor dismissed any chance of the team being ready for Bahrain.
"I do know that Windsor was told of our progress on a number of occasions off the record in informal settings, but it took a very contentious shop meeting in late January/early February for him to twig [that] indeed we had an issue," the source claimed.
"In a meeting between the employees, Windsor and Anderson, Windsor put the question up to the employees: 'Who here doesn't think we'll make Bahrain?' I think Windsor might have meant it somewhat rhetorically, but he was answered nonetheless, and 100 per cent of the staff raised their hands. He was visibly shocked."
Anderson was quick to deny the sentiment behind the report, though refused to be quizzed on specifics.
"The story that the employee tells is certainly twisted and one-sided," Anderson spat to Autosport, "There are also contradictions. Everybody that signed up here knew exactly what they were getting into, i.e. to have two cars on the track in Bahrain.
"Given the late start due to the FIA/FOTA situation of 2009, I asked everybody to keep the car simple, strong and reliable. The comment that the chassis moulds sat for a month while waiting for a lay-up schedule is exactly the sort of thing that hurt us. Way too complex and time consuming. I did question why it was so complex if it was not necessary."
Windsor added that he would "continue to give all the love and passion I have ever had for our sport" to efforts to get the American team onto the grid, but this latest savaging, the first concrete evidence of the issues inside the team, may well hinder the team's last desperate efforts to drum up the required money to complete their car and compete in 2010.
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