Alabama will see the first USF1 car outing

The USF1 team will use the Barber Motorsport Park in the state of Alabama to shakedown their 2010 contender early next month, sporting director Peter Windsor has told the official Formula One website. This track has been nominated by the FIA, and will see at least one session out of a possible three in the US before the Charlotte based team heads to Europe with the rest of the grid.

“Because we are a new team and start everything from zero the first time we will run the car will be in the United States at the Barber Motorsport Park in Alabama, the circuit that was nominated by the FIA for us," Windsor told the official Formula One site in an interview.

“We’ve got the dispensation from the FIA, which is fantastic, because we are not based in Europe. We are the only team that does have a test circuit outside Europe, so it is totally logical for us that we run the car the first time in the US at the beginning of February."

The team has a limited set of test sessions in the US before it plans to test in Spain with the rest of the teams prior to the Bahraini GP on March 14. Windsor explained, “We are allowed three sessions in the US. Then we will ship it (the car) to Spain to do some testing there before we fly out to Bahrain.”

Though their driver lineup is still pending, they are close to making the decision public, "We are very close to announcing our drivers. We've been talking to some great racing drivers over the last couple of months - and it is very difficult choosing from the good drivers that are around."