By Andrew Cutler
March 14 2007

American Scott Speed was the last driver to be confirmed for 2007, just weeks before the season opener. Press statements from STR co-owner Gerhard Berger gave the impression that one of the reasons for the hold-up was concerns over Scott's commitment to driving. Now Scott is speaking up about that. "As far as my commitment -- over the whole winter off season that I had, I spent one week over Christmas with my family in California whom I hadn't seen all year," Speed told reporters in Melbourne. "The rest of the time I spent in Arizona training, because that's where I had the best training opportunities. So I think that should pretty much answer everybody's commitment question. I was always pretty sure that I was going to drive so I just kept my head down, did the training that I needed to do in the off season and here we are,"

"I couldn't say I'm much better prepared than I was at the end of last year, but you surely learn a lot of stuff in Formula One race by race," he said. "Going into this year, I am definitely way ahead of where I was at the beginning of last year."

Scott also talked about the STR2 and his hopes for the 2007 season. "It's been a struggle for us because we've gotten everything so late and we're still having quite a bit of problems. It's such a huge difference for us this car to last year. It's so much more complex and all the guys are still getting used to it. I think it's going to be a slow start for us but I think we have a car that's got a lot of potential. By the end of the season we should be in the points a few times."

All quotes courtesy of Reuters.