Jan.8 (GMM) The first USF1 car will make its debut on an American circuit, it was announced on Friday.

The Charlotte based team's sporting director Peter Windsor told the official F1 website that the FIA has granted special dispensation to allow winter testing for USF1 away from the normal European group sessions.

"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," he said.

Windsor added that the maiden test will take place "at the beginning of February", but was not more specific.

He said the FIA dispensation allows for three tests in the US, before the car is shipped to Spain "to do some testing there before we fly out to Bahrain".

It has been reported in recent days that Argentine driver Jose Maria Lopez is close to finalising his sponsorship package for one USF1 race seat, while the Briton James Rossiter is rumoured to be in contention for the other.

Said Windsor: "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.

"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," he added.

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