Alabama 1st Test for USF1 (From Official F1 Website)

True to their roots, the new US team have confirmed their 2010 car’s first run will take place on home soil in the United States. The new machine will make its test debut at the Barber Motorsport Park in Alabama early next month.

The US team is one of four new squads joining the grid this year, along with Lotus, Campos and Virgin, but they are the only one based outside of Europe, which means they will not be at the first of February’s pre-season tests in Spain.

“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,” sporting director Peter Windsor told Formula1.com.

“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.”

Though the team’s initial testing will be in the US, Windsor said they do plan to run alongside their rivals before the season gets underway on March 14.

“We are allowed three sessions in the US,” he explained. “Then we will ship it (the car) to Spain to do some testing there before we fly out to Bahrain.”

The Charlotte-based team has yet to confirm any drivers, despite reports late last year that former Renault tester Jose Maria Lopez was close to signing a deal. However, Windsor confirmed that an announcement on their line-up can be expected shortly.

“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 choosing from the good drivers that are around.

“I think there are still a lot and the difficult thing is to choose only two out of ten 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.”