Jose Maria Lopez has hit out at his former employer. USF1 hired the young Argentinean in January of this year after agreeing a large ‘pay-to-race’ deal, however the outfit failed to make it to the grid, leaving Lopez without a race seat.
Lopez has admitted the team mislead him, making false promises.
“I find it hard to say that we did it wrong.” he said in a news conference held by the Argentine Automobile Club.
“I think we put too much trust in what people were telling us.
“As soon as I arrived in Charlotte in February, I realised that everything they were saying was not true.
“What happened to us was unthinkable: in 60 years of Formula 1 it never happened that a team signed up and didn’t make it. They hid things from us.”
Lopez, undeterred by his false start in F1, is still keen to secure a drive.
“My idea is to go on, not lay my head down.”
“Everybody knows what happened. We are going to go on, even though as of today we have no firm project. Of course it’s not the same anymore. There have been many falls and I don’t know how long I can take it, or my family,” he said.
A test role is most likely for Lopez, what with the in-season testing ban, and limited pre-season running.
“It [testing] would be the easiest thing because racing in F1 is almost impossible this year. At some point I will be making the decisions.”
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