Pedro de la Rosa isn’t confident of qualifying within the 107 per cent regulation for the United States GP after failing to do so throughout both practice sessions on Friday.
The Spaniard and his team-mate Narain Karthikeyan have struggled for grip throughout practice to a greater degree than most, and De la Rosa believes things are unlikely to improve enough for them to be on the required pace.
“I’m not confident,” he told Autosport. “It will depend on whether we manage to get into the tyre-temperature window, which we were definitely not getting on Friday. This is our biggest issue.”
The 41-year-old fears he may have to run long in qualifying to ensure the tyres have enough heat in them to complete a competitive lap.
“Saturday is going to be difficult for us. It’s looking like in Q1, put as much fuel as you can in and run to the flag. But hopefully I’m wrong.”
Meanwhile he dismissed claims the team limited their Friday action due to financial troubles following confirmation that the team was put up for sale.
Speculation in the paddock suggests they have halted work at their factory and therefore have limited spares, and opted to run Ma Qing Hua during FP1 to raise funds for vital necessities such as fuel and brake discs.
“We had the tyre issue and we thought it was quite useless to run first thing in the sessions when the track was slippery,” he added.
“If we had tyres that switched on initially, then we should have run more.”
