ANALYSIS-Motor racing-Cost cuts are key to U.S. F1 team

By Alan Baldwin

LONDON, Feb 25 (Reuters) - A successful U.S. Formula One team would be welcomed by everyone in the sport but it will only be a realistic prospect if the costs of competing are slashed for 2010.

Some might consider it madness to try to get a new team off the ground at a time when belts are being tightened across corporate America and when even manufacturer teams are struggling to attract backers and fighting for survival.

Despite that, USF1 team principal Ken Anderson and his sporting director Peter Windsor, a journalist and former Williams team manager, sounded upbeat on Tuesday when they unveiled their bold project.

The plan is to set up a Charlotte, North Carolina-based team of more than 100 people and hire two American drivers to take on the likes of Ferrari and McLaren from outside the European heartland in 2010.

Windsor said Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone was supportive while the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) had also been encouraging.

So too was America's last and only surviving world champion Mario Andretti: "This is the best news I could have hoped for as a Formula One fan and an absolute supporter. It's got to be great news for Formula One, period," he told Speed TV.

McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh said a U.S. based team would be "an excellent vehicle via which all Formula One stakeholders could make important promotional and commercial inroads into what remains the world's biggest economy.

"For that reason alone, we at McLaren-Mercedes applaud Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson's efforts," he told the autosport.com website.