Anderson: USF1 could miss up to four races

USF1 co-founder Ken Anderson has finally publicly admitted that his team won't make the starting grid in Bahrain - and could miss as many as four races.

USF1's financial problems have made headlines for the past few weeks with reports last week claiming that they may withdraw from Formula One completely.

However, Anderson insists that's not the case, although they have asked the FIA for permission to miss the opening four races of the Championship.

"We're working with the FIA to clarify how many races we can miss," he told the New York Times. "In an ideal world, we can miss the first four races and show up in Barcelona."

Earlier this month, though, the FIA made it clear that any team missing grands prix would face sanctions from motorsport's governing body

"From a sporting and regulatory point of view, each team that has registered for the Championship is obliged to take part in every event of the season," the FIA stated.

"Any failure to take part, even for just one Championship event, would constitute an infringement both of the Concorde Agreement and the FIA Regulations."

Asked by the NYT whether any penalties faced could be 'severe enough to put USF1 out of business', Anderson said: "I guess anything's possible. But what would be the point of that?

"Why would they give us a franchise and just, the first time there's a bump in the road, yank it and put it out of business? That's definitely not the message that I'm getting from them. They want to help us, not shut us down."

Finances are proving to be a problem with Anderson admitting that some deals had fallen through, although he denied that Chad Hurley, a co-founder of YouTube who is a major investor in USF1, had withdrawn his support.

More cash, though, is needed. "We have a timeline in place that if we get a decision quickly, that triggers funding and we're good to go," he said. "If it takes another week or two to make a decision, it keeps backing up."

Anderson: USF1 could miss up to four races - Planet-F1 News from planet-f1.com

^ F1's getting more messy by the day.. why would bernie not have the brains to let one team in at a time.. not 4 or 5 ... its stupid.