US team plans to enter F1 in 2010

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The founders of a proposed Formula One team from the United States insist they are ready to enter the sport in 2010.

Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson, the duo behind the scheme, have said the cars will be built in North Carolina and driven by American drivers.

They also confirmed they have finance in place and that F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has given them his backing.

"I told Bernie Ecclestone about this in Brazil 2006, and he just said, 'great, get it done'," Windsor told Autosport.

"He has kept in touch ever since and has always been supportive."

Windsor, a journalist and television presenter, is a former Williams team manager and will assume the role of sporting director while Anderson has many years of experience in both F1 and Indy Car as a race engineer. The current global economic crisis has forced many teams into cost cutting measures ahead of the new season on 29 March, while struggling Honda are still looking to find a buyer.

Despite this USF1 will not be be backed by a manufacturer or wealthy businessman, with Windsor saying they have put together a viable business plan that will work.

"If you look at the way it's gone in the recent past, it's been either you find a rich trillionaire and have him dominate, or you are lucky enough to be invited by a large car company to set up their F1 operation," he said.

"Ken and I have been around long enough to know we didn't want to do those things.

"We always wanted to do our own team our way. We have got some things we want to bring in.

"The key was not to selling anything more than a very small stake in the team.

"We set ourselves some unbelievably steep hills to climb in a recession, but we only wanted to sell a small part of the team, and, as we sit here now, I'm pleased to say we've done that and we're now two guys that can say we are going to do an F1 team because we have the capital to do it." F1 has a rich history in north America and can boast two former world champions in Phil Hill and Mario Andretti.

However, races in America and Canada have recently been taken off the calendar and there are currently no US or Canadian drivers competing in the sport.

Danica Patrick, the first woman to compete in the Indy Car series in the US, has been linked with a seat with the new team as have former Torro Rosso driver Scott Speed, and Andretti's grandson 21-year-old Marco.

Anderson has admitted that Patrick would be an attractive proposition for USF1 and is keen to see if the 26-year-old would fancy becoming the sixth female F1 driver.

"Danica's great - she gets a lot of press," he said.

"IndyCar Series boss Tony George would probably be pretty mad with me if I took her out of the IRL (Indy Racing League), but we'll see.

"I don't know if it's something she wants to do. We'd certainly love to test her and go from there."