Arriving in uncharted territory, the HRT drivers know that dapting as soon as possible will be vital at the new Circuit of the Americas...
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Pedro de la Rosa: "The truth is we don't know much about this circuit. All I know about it is from what I've seen on the Internet. The first thing that strikes you about this track is the number of gradient changes and how extreme they are. The important thing is for our car to adapt well to this circuit and we will dedicate Friday to learning the track and setting up the car. The choice of medium and hard tyres seems, on paper, an election of quite hard compounds. But until we don't confirm the grip of the asphalt it will be difficult to draw any conclusions."
Narain Karthikeyan: "The Circuit of The Americas looks like a promising layout, lots of parts from different circuits around the world but what I'm looking forward to most is the massively uphill turn one. These gradient changes do well to add to the circuit's character as we've seen in India so it is going to be a challenging layout. So as a driver, it would be up to us to do the maximum number of laps possible on Friday to learn the circuit and get the base set-up right and then take it from there. I raced in Formula 1 the last time it was in America, back at Indianapolis in 2005 and then NASCAR in 2010 and I really enjoyed racing there; the fan following is huge. So it would be great to see Formula 1 being successful in such a promising market and hopefully with this new facility and an entertaining circuit, it will happen soon enough."
Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Principal: "Once again we're heading to an unknown circuit, so the key will be to learn the circuit and adapt as quickly as possible. All we know about this circuit is what the simulation department, who have been working on it for some time, have put across to us. According to them it's a very complete and spectacular track and that gives us extra motivation to face this penultimate test of the season. It's been an intense end of year but I'm confident that we can finish off on a good note which will enable us to make a positive overall assessment of this special season."
