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It's time to take US F1 seriously

With the announcement that YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley is backing the team, Dieter Rencken takes an exclusive inside look at Team US F1 and explains why it could be about to change our perspectives for ever

Long whispered, oft alluded to and seldom denied, it is now official: the primary investor in USF1 is 33-year-old Chad Hurley. He is one of the trio of Youtube.com founders, and still the internet phenomenon's CEO despite selling a majority holding to Google in 2006 (shades of Bernie Ecclestone's modus operandi...). This week he exclusively confirmed to this column his interest in the first full-on US F1 operation in more than 40 years.

The Fine Arts graduate (in a previous life he designed Paypal's logo) first met team founders Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor when they did a series of commercial opportunities. And although Hurley freely admits to not being a petrol-sipping motorsport enthusiast - he was a Pennsylvania State standard marathon athlete - the concept of investing in a motor racing start-up operation certainly had its appeal.

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