Speed glad to be back home

The 23-year-old rookie from California has already driven at the Indianapolis circuit, having taken part in last year's practice as a Friday test driver for Red Bull.

This year, however, he will make the big jump and will race in front of his home fans.

"For me it has been fantastic," said Speed ahead of the Indianapolis race. "When you first get to F1, you think do I  belong here? Am I good enough to stay? I have a lot of confidence about that, the team is supporting me and it is great to be back home.

"It has been fantastic and now when I go back and everyone asked how it is going I say really great. This is the first time I have experienced F1 in Indy and it has been a very warm greeting."

Expectations for Speed have to be low, however, as Toro Rosso are expected to struggle on the long straight as a consequence of using a restricted V10 engine.

But Speed said they were expecting the same in Canada last weekend and the team proved to be competitive, the American finishing in tenth place.

"Certainly at a track like Canada and here it is going to hurt us because we don't have the top horsepower but we were quite competitive in Canada," he said.