The following are selected driver quotes for the United States Grand Prix this upcoming weekend:

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER: “We have been generally competitive (this year), but it’s on knife edge sometimes. Sometimes we fall on one side or the other.” (About lasting effects of 2005 United States Grand Prix in America): “You should not judge F1 on the one event, you have to judge on the whole.” (About racing in the 2006 United States Grand Prix): “It is nice for us to go over there and experience a new country and show our sport, and we are pretty happy to do so.” (About if the arrival of American Scott Speed will increase F1’s popularity in the U.S.): “I think you will see an increase with having Scott Speed around. If you have your own (country’s) sportsman there competing at the top, it will obviously help a lot.”

FELIPE MASSA: “In these two races, Canada and Indy, it is very important for us to be in front of Renault. We have a good package, a good engine, and a good team working together to maybe the best race of Ferrari, and we just have a good chance to be in front of them.”

FERNANDO ALONSO: It is a little bit easier than at some other circuits because we have a great passing opportunity into turn 1 if you can slipstream another car on the main straight. Straightline speed is very important at Indy, so we run the car with a low level of downforce like in Montreal. For the infield section, you need good traction, so we concentrate on getting those two very different characteristics from the car. I am expecting another really tough battle. It was very close during the race in Montreal between Renault and McLaren, and Kimi put a lot of pressure on me all the way through the first part of the race. I expect it will be similar again this weekend, because we will be running basically the same cars without any developments on them. Depending on the tyre situation, Ferrari will be very competitive too. I have never finished a race in Indy, so this is another place where I really want to get on the podium and add a trophy to my collection!

GIANCARLO FISICHELLA: “Our car has been competitive on every kind of circuit last year and this year, so I think we are again able to be competitive there - why not?”

KIMI RAIKKONEN: “At Montreal, we were able to show the step forward we have made with the MP4-21 and hopefully this week in America we will be able to challenge for the top step of the podium. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a great venue, and it is one of those everyone wants to say they have won at. The fans are also great, they are real petrol heads and I hope we can put on a good race for them this year. The track is all about compromise and is tough on all elements of the car. It is another fast track, like the past two of Silverstone and Montreal. Set-up wise the United States Grand Prix is more similar to Montreal as you have the long straight and slow corners, but you do have to allow for the slower infield section also. You can really challenge for position here, for sure the best opportunity is slipstreaming along the straight section of the oval and pass under braking at the right hander that takes you back into the infield. It also helps that the track is so wide here.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: “After my race in Canada, I cannot wait to get straight back on track this weekend, as the car felt really quick. It is even better for me that we are at Indy this race and competing for the fans, who are amazing and I personally have awesome support from Colombia, so I am looking forward to getting out there and putting on a fantastic show for them. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has such great memories for me from my days in CART and of course winning the Indy 500 in 2000, it is such a special venue, full of history and legend. The nature of the track, with the immense straight along the oval and the tight infield sees us use a medium to low downforce configuration to allow for the contrast in track style. The 1.7km section of the banked oval we use is the longest stretch we have at full throttle all season, it is pretty good fun as by the time you get to the end of the straight you really feel like you are going super fast because of the length of time!”

RUBENS BARRICHELLO: “I really enjoy racing in the United States and have a lot of friends based there so I always look forward to this particular race. The track itself is a lot of fun with some great overtaking places and it feels good to drive through the first corner of the oval banking flat out, although it is an easy corner for us in an F1 car. Indianapolis has such a strong motor racing heritage and traditionally puts on a great show so I hope that the race weekend goes really well this year for all the fans who come to watch. I had a disappointing race in Montreal so we will be hoping for better this weekend, but it will be tough for us until we return to testing and work on improving the performance of the car. ”

JENSON BUTTON “It’s always exciting to race at a venue which has such a strong history and Indianapolis always has a great atmosphere. The circuit itself is very slow with the tight in-field section. I generally prefer fast flowing circuits but you can overtake around here which should make for some exciting racing for the fans. We will be using different tyres at Indy to those we used last weekend in Montreal so I am hoping that we can have a better race there. I also hope that we can give the American public a really good race this year.”

Mark Webber: “It will be good to be back in America this week and I hope that we can put on a good show for the fans, they deserve it and Formula One needs it. As a team, we also need to do a lot better than we did in Canada, primarily by benefiting from a better tyre choice. I think we can be quite strong in Indianapolis, providing we make the right decisions in our preparations. I like racing in the US, even if the Speedway was not designed for Formula One cars, and I respect the history of the track. It’s important that we come home with some points from these two flyaways.”

Nico Rosberg: “Again, Indy is a track I haven’t yet raced at but one which I’ve learnt on the simulator. It seems to be quite different from the other circuits due to the very long straight and the banking. It will be interesting to see what Michelin and Bridgestone will come up with after what happened last year. I really hope that the fans will come back this year because I have watched several Indy 500 races on the TV and the atmosphere is just great with all those huge grandstands packed with people! For a driver, the bigger the crowd, the better it is!”

Ralf Schumacher: “Of course I have mixed memories of Indianapolis, not least from last year. It was a tough decision for the teams not to race and it was particularly hard on the fans who had travelled to see the event. But it was the right decision because it was clearly unsafe to race and the safety of the drivers has to come first. It’s in the nature of a racing driver to want to race but I hope the fans will understand that it was just impossible last year. Now we just have to hope that we have a trouble-free race this time so that the American public can look forward to seeing Formula 1 as it really is. The organisers have done a good job with the circuit at the Speedway and the challenge is to set up the car for good speed along the oval section while retaining stability through the twisty infield. The atmosphere is usually great at Indianapolis and I hope it will be similar again this year.”

Jarno Trulli: “Last year’s US Grand Prix was an unfortunate weekend, and I was most sorry for the spectators who had come to the event. But we had no choice on race day because the risk to the drivers was too big. Of course it was hard to step out of the car but even though I was on pole, I would not have wanted to race under those conditions. Now we will just hope for a better weekend for everyone concerned this time. Indianapolis is a special venue and I enjoy the atmosphere both at the circuit and in the town because the people are so friendly. It has not been a very lucky season so far for me but we have definitely improved our performance as the season has gone on and the points in Canada were very welcome. I’m really looking forward to finishing the year well and I think I’ve earned the right to a change of fortune. But most of all, I just hope we can put on a good show in Indianapolis for the fans and try to erase the memories of last year.”

Nick Heidfeld: ?I am looking forward to the U.S. GP. Indianapolis is the mecca of American motorsport. For us F1 drivers it is something special to drive on the banking, although basically this is a simple task as you just go flat out. We only use a part of the oval, as especially for F1 an infield section with lots of corners was built for its debut year in 2000. In the first year we didn?t know whether it was better to drive with a lot of downforce in this part of the track, or if it was more important to be fast on the straight and have very little rear wing. In 2006 this question will be asked again, as we have changed from V10 to V8 engines and have approximately 200bhp less.

Jacques Villeneuve: “The F1 circuit in Indianapolis isn?t a bad track, although I feel it?s not as good as it could be. If I had designed it I would have used both straights on the oval, not just the one which is at the start of the lap. It is very long and we get up to speeds of well over 300kph. Here you are driving next to a wall and at the end you have to brake heavily, so that makes if different to other tracks. When you get near the end of the lap there is a kink where you rejoin the main oval and go into the final corner, which is banked. In this corner we reach speeds of 280kph and it doesn?t really feel like a corner. It is a difficult track to drive and the fact it is bumpy doesn?t help.

DAVID COULTHARD: “I would imagine that because it is one of the longest straights, we have 20 seconds of full throttle, given that our top speeds have not been particularly strong this year, I’d expect us to be mid-grid and possibly slightly further down. It will be difficult to get into the top 10, but that does not mean that we are going there with a defeatist attitude. We will try to do the best we can.” (About what F1 teams and drivers should do at the 2006 United States Grand Prix): “Of course, it will help if we put on a good show. We have to go there and show that we are a professional racing championship and that we can put on a show that will entertain the American crowd. F1 does need a place in America to be a true world championship.”

CHRISTIAN KLIEN: “We don’t know how competitive we will be because we didn’t race there last year. So it is a bit difficult. It has a very long straight, and the infield is actually very slow. Normally our car is a bit better on the slow circuits like Monaco and Hungary. We always try to fight for points, but for sure it will be difficult in Indy.” (About what F1 teams and drivers should do at the 2006 United States Grand Prix): “We just have to show them a really good show, and show them what is real F1. It would be great if we have a good race with a lot of overtaking. It has to be good with no screwup like last year. We can give them a good show. On Saturday evening, I will be at the Grand Prix Tours Kiss And Make Up party for the fans.”

VITANTONIO LIUZZI: “We will struggle a lot at Indianapolis because with the V10 we always struggle on the fast circuits because we don’t have any top speed, and the V10 is not pushing enough.”

SCOTT SPEED: “I feel that people who are fans of F1 are fans because they know what it is. And they will be understanding at the end of the day about what happened.”