Many had expected the American team would call upon a home-grown driver, such as Alexander Rossi, as part of its plans for an all-American team, but that won’t be the case, at least not in 2016.
“There is nobody out there at the moment,” Steiner told the official Formula 1 website.
“Yes, there are drivers in GP2 and Formula 3, but having a rookie in a new team – that is difficult for both sides. The potential of such a partnership failing is pretty high.
“So at the moment we’d rather not be looking at that avenue, because you are also not helping an inexperienced driver – he could be burned in one season.”
“We are new, so we need a known quantity in the team.”
With Steiner’s insistence on experience, it’s believed a Ferrari reserve driver, such as Esteban Gutierrez or Jean-Eric Vergne are guaranteed one of the seats, whilst a list of up to eight other drivers are fighting over the second seat.
That list is thought to include Sergio Perez, Keving Magnussen, Romain Grosjean and Max Chilton among others.
Source: Sky Sports
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