While admitting his main focus is to become a race driver in the 2010 series, De la Rosa also admitted that maintaining his testing/reserve role with McLaren Mercedes is also something that he'll be interested in next year. The condition would have to be McLaren's allowing him to join another outfit as full-time driver.
“I would be very happy to be at McLaren-Mercedes as the reserve driver and arrange my work to race in another team as well, or simply go to another team to race. I don't know; that is the answer,” said De la Rosa, according to Spanish news agency EFE.
Until figuring out how to cope with such a dual role for the 2010 Formula One Championship, the Spanish veteran needs to find a racing seat first, and his best chances of inking a deal currently rest with US Grand Prix Engineering. The North Carolina based outfit recently purchased its European base at Aragon (Spain), a facility De la Rosa contributed – in terms of design – a few years ago.
“There is no hurry to make a decision. It is true that USF1 and the Motorland (Aragon) have reached an agreement, but personally I do not know what is going to happen,” said the Spaniard.
When asked about the eternal problem drivers have to face when stepping into F1, the lack of sponsorship money, the McLaren driver argued that his experience may prove to be more important in the teams' choices, as there will be no less than 4 new, inexperienced outfits on the 2010 grid.
“With sponsors everything would be infinitely easier, but I believe that my experience in F1 is very important. My experience is my sponsor,” added the Spaniard.
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