De la Rosa: Work hard, stay professional

HRT’s Pedro de la Rosa says the uncertainty surrounding the future of his team is no reason to carry on any differently this weekend in Austin.

In the past week stories have emerged in the media casting doubt on the participation of HRT beyond the end of the current season, variously describing the team as being up for sale and its employees being given notice of redundancy. Against that backdrop driver Pedro de la Rosa emerged today to answer questions in the FIA press conference.

“It’s a corporate decision, in which I’m not involved,” said de la Rosa. “All I can say is: we are here, there are two grands prix to go and no matter what’s going on in the background, we will give it 100 per cent like we’ve always done. No matter in which position we fight, and who we fight against, we will do a professional job.

“We are here to do that and there are two very interesting grands prix left. Hopefully there are some more retirements than in the last few races and we can achieve a good result. But first we have to finish the races and make sure that we do as much as we can on both Friday sessions that are left.

The experienced de la Rosa also dismissed rumours that the team is running risks by bringing parts beyond their design life. “All I can say is we might be modest, we are small and we are what we are – but we are a professional Formula One team and for sure when we start running it’s because the car is safe. I would never jump into an unsafe car because of parts being too old. So no, the answer is that the car is slow but it is safe.”