US F1 set for first test in Alabama
Date published : 08 Jan 2010 - 12:49:31
The new US F1 team will test its 2010 car for the first time at a circuit in Alabama at the start of next month, its sporting director Peter Windsor has revealed.
America's new F1 venture, which is running its operations from a factory in Charlotte, North Carolina, is the only one of Formula 1's 13 teams to be based outside Europe and has been granted special dispensation by the FIA to run its 2010 car in the United States.
While the majority of its fellow teams are set to kick off pre-season testing in Valencia on February 1, Windsor has confirmed the first ever run for US F1 will take place at Alabama's Barber Motorsport Park which holds rounds of both the IndyCar Series and AMA Superbike Championship where it will conduct three sessions before flying its cars out to join the rest of the grid in Europe.
The first thing that needs to be said is that if this was 2011 and we were an existing team we would be at the first test, Windsor told F1's official website.
But because we are a new team and started from nothing, the first time we will run the car will be in the United States at the Barber Motorsport Park in Alabama.
This is the circuit that was nominated by the FIA for us.
We've got this dispensation from the FIA, which is fantastic, because we are not based in Europe.
We are the only team that has a test circuit outside Europe, so it is totally logic for us to run the car for the first time in the US at the beginning of February.
We are allowed three sessions in the US. Then we will ship it to Spain to do some testing there before we fly out to Bahrain.
Although it was the first of the four new 2010 entrants to reveal its F1 ambitions last February, US F1 has been dogged by rumours over the state of its preparations in recent months with it still the only team yet to sign up drivers for the forthcoming season.
Windsor, however, has again insisted that an announcement on the driver front is imminent, admitting it has been difficult to narrow down the contenders to just two.
We are very close to announcing our drivers, he said.
We've been talking to some great racing drivers over the last couple of months, and it is very difficult to choose between the good drivers that are around.
I think there are still a lot on offer and the difficult thing will be to choose only two out of the 10 that are available.
It's a difficult job and I hate having to do that. We have not signed our forward deals yet in terms of the contracts, but we are pretty near to announcing.
And as for the continuing doubts that surround the team, former Williams team manager Windsor said: The thought [that US F1 won't be on the grid in Bahrain] is ludicrous.
I can't say any more than that we will definitely be on the Bahrain grid.
