As there are over 650 Unraced F1 projects from the period 1885 – 2020 I decided before to publish articles of unraced projects per year. This is easier for you to see which attempts happened a specific year. Of course, it is easier for me as well as researching and writing an article takes a lot of time, which I don’t always have. If you are interested in one of the summarized attempts perhaps, I can give you more info about it. This is the summarized overview of the Unraced projects in 2009.
To be fair 2009 had plenty of teams who were interested to enter the Formula One. However, this was for the entry application the FIA opened for the 2010 season. Another article dedicated to those teams that applied for 2010 is in the making. This article will, what I will call for now, the standalone teams that had the plans to enter the Formula One. Or teams that appeared on the track with unraced cars.
Honda 1089 – 109K
Honda would leave the Formula One after the 2008 season due to the financial crisis that had hit the world in the worse possible way. However, Honda already worked on their Honda 109, which would be the successor of the Honda 108. For the first time the 1089 was seen on the track in 2008. On the other hand the Honda 109K would be the prototype car the team would appear with during the first tests of the 2009 season. To test the new KERS (hybrid) which as introduced in the Formula One. RACECAR Engineering covered the whole process of the Honda 1089 and Honda 109K pretty. Good, article can be found here, it’s a long read though worth the read if you want to know all the background.
USF1
I’m aware the team was granted the Formula One entry for 2010. However, USF1 never made it to the stage to be a functional Formula One team. As said USF1 was one of the new team for 2010 who were granted a spot on the starting grid. Ken Anderson was the team principal and was involved in motor sport for over 30 years. He and Peter Windsor, who was involved for years in the motor sport as well, would run the all-American team (Make America Race Again!). USF1 was granted an engine deal with Cosworth. The news went that USF1 had a decent sponsor in the name Youtube, well the owner at that time, and some other American companies were interested.
USF1 showed their progression by attracting new people like Bernard Ferguson, Carl Flesher and Dave Stubbs. The team even showed an tube they build as well they did a tour through their factory. While it seems the team would appear on the grid in 2010. At the end of 2009, things became different. There were no new announcements made from the team. The teams last message was on twitter on the 18th of February 2010 when they announced their server is down. It was the last we heard of it.
Campos Racing / Campos Meta 1
Adrian Campos, former F1 driver for Minardi, applied for the vacant spot on the grid. Campos Racing was active in the lower Formulae series and they believe they were ready to enter the Formula One in 2010. However, the team came quickly in financial trouble. Before the start of the season the team was sold to José Ramón Carabante who rebranded the team to HRT. In 2011, the team had again a new owner. The story is partly covered in this story.
Stefan Grand Prix
Yep there they are again Stefan Grand Prix. The team from Zoran Stefanovic who tried to enter the Formula One since the 1990s. However, the attempt to appear on the grid in 2010 was the closest they get. In 2009, it became known that Toyota would leave the Formula One. Due to the financial crisis as happened with several teams. Zoran was able to acquire the unraced Toyota TF110. The car Toyota would use in 2010. The idea was to continue on Toyota’s infrastructure. This would mean that the team only had to acquire Toyota. Sadly, they did not acquire the rights to start in 2010. Nor was the team granted access in 2009 to enter the F1 in 2010 by the FIA.
