Filed under: Motorsports, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, South America
The USF1 team has ended months of speculation by announcing the first of two drivers for its debut in the upcoming 2010 Formula One season. Actually, it was the President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who announced the contract between the team and one Jose Maria “Pechito” Lopez, hinting at just how much support the Argentine driver received from his home country.
Although the start-up – the first F1 team based in the U.S. in some 40 years – initially said it wanted to field American drivers, in the end it comes down to financial backing for USF1 and the other three teams slated to join the grid this year. That’s not to say that Lopez is undeserving; although a rookie in technical terms, Pechito has three years of testing with the Renault F1 team under his belt, along with several years in karting, Formula 3000, GP2 and other racing series.
When he makes his race debut, Lopez will be the 24th Argentine driver to make the grid, following such greats as De Tomaso, Fangio and Reutemann. And the announcement brings the 2010 line-up one step closer to completion, with only a seat each at Renault, Campos and USF1 remaining unconfirmed.
In a related development, the Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso teams announced the promotion of reigning British F3 champion Daniel Ricciardo and former Formula Renault 2.0 champion Brendon Hartley – of Australia and New Zealand respectively – as their shared reserve drivers for this year. Details on the Lopez announcement in the press release after the jump.
[Source: USF1]
Continue reading Officially Official: USF1 signs Jose Maria Lopez to drive in 2010
Officially Official: USF1 signs Jose Maria Lopez to drive in 2010 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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