Rumours surfacing of Santander buying in to HRT, 40% stake.
Talk of Ferrari engines from 2012, using 2011 as a transition year with PDLR as a driver.

Seems to be a fair bit of doubt about the deal but if you wanted to talk about a big Spanish company they would certainly fit the bill.

Why would Santander want an F1 team? Sure a sponsor coming in and taking equity in a team is a great way to do it but you're already on Ferrari and have a significant trackside advertising operation and if you need Spanish PR you have uhm, what's that guy's name, the two time world champion, Gene?

It's not true. December 28th is known as the Day of the Innocents in Spain. It's not unlike April Fool's Day. There was a big one last year that everyone fell for, something to do with Alonso and Massa and Ferrari.

It was said that Piquet had acquired Campos.

We still have no idea who is building this car. If it was contracted out we would've surely heard something by now. Yet if they are doing it themselves, do they even have the facilities?

I assume it is easier to subcontract the actual build of the parts than the design.
Virgin designed their 2011 car with computers only, so I guess you don't need that much facilities.
Do they have the resources/facilities to design a fast car is the other question.
Their partnership with Williams should help them a little bit.

Yup, exactly.


"Actualización 29 de diciembre: Esta es la inocentada de Motor21 para celebrar el Día de los Santos Inocentes."

http://www.motor21.com/formula-1/el-banco-...hispania-94312/

Am I riht in thinking that Hispania haven't got any facilities of their own and they're using Kolles' DTM place

You're right about it.

Well that will surely bring them much closer to their rivals next year.......

For those who can read Spanish (or trust google translator enough), here are the last news about the team building its HQ in Murcia:

http://www.laverdad.es/murcia/v/20101123/d...s-20101123.html

Summary: It won't happen.

Carabante is "worthy" accomplice of Kolles

Nothing of a surprise ! What a waste !

I thought they were based at Kolles' place in Germany anyway? It'd be a waste to move to Spain unless they had a LOT of money to do so.

Just looking at the rate of development stats on the print version of Autosport today, and whilst it may not matter if they run at the back, they were dangerously close to the dreaded 107% pace for the whole of the season (looking at the graph they were hovering between 106.5 - 107.5% compared to the ultimate pace). If I am recalling this correctly and the FIA are bringing back the 107% qualifying rule (please dont ask for a link!) then it will have a severe negative impact on the team if they are going to be reusing the Dallara tubs again and can't keep pace with the fastest teams, who will be designing a significantly faster chassis for next year that will maximise the new regulations - although presumably the tie in with Williams will help somewhat.

Bit more then just that!

It was a complex!

Mastercard Lola members club - 3 different member rankings @ 3 different prices. Where the money went to the team.

Then...a percentage of the profit Mastercard did, from the members credit cards would go to the team, something like 0,5% to 1% (of the MC profit and not a percentage of what the club members spent).

It wasn't really down to success on the track, it was more of a need to succeed marketing wise!

Something like this could only be achieved in a long term project!

Will the introduction of new tires make it easier or harder for HRT to make the 107% cut?
You would imagine that the top teams will be quicker towards the latter part of the season as they begin to understand the tires better...

The faster teams will understand them a ton better at the start of the season too especially if HRT dont test.

The Pirelli fronts negated the F110 chassis tendency towards understeer.
On the 107% rule; Geoff Willis gave an overview of the teams performance in the annual F1 review. Basically it was down to a lack of any aero development on the car plus Dallara never ran the final aero iteration as a result of the funding problems.
It is possible that given a chance to rectify all the problems with the F110, they could find 2.5s - 3s a lap even if they re-use the Dallara tub.

If they can afford to let Willis do his job properly, then I think we could be looking at a significant improvement in HRT's performance. And by significant I mean that they could be within 5secs off the pace on every track. I really think the F110 had potential, which was never really revealed because of the terrible financial situation of the team. Ofcourse all this is just speculation until we see the actual "new" car on track. And if those rumours are correct, that won't happen in the pre-season testing, which then again is a huge set back for the team. Let's wait and hope for the best.

Where did HRT actually store and "Develop" their cars during the season, in a shed?

HRT barely has any money for facilities etc, i have faith in Willis but i can't see HRT giving him proper fundings to actually develop something amazing.

Someone tweeted that they will "probably" test the 2010 car in Valencia, so they don't expect to have a new car by then.

Is that true?

They cannot race 2011 with an old car because of the new crashtest requirements. So they need a new car or they are out...

Yes.
At Monaco, Bruno told me that the upgrades proposed by Willis would bring an increase of downforce by 30%, translates into about 2" per lap (the Lotus pace).
Of course it needed to invest the money that Carabante never wanted to invest.

The impact tests are dependent on the tub. They are the same as in 2010. So they can use the same tub. Of coure they need modifications to comply with 2011 regs.

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/249843/...-first-f1-test/

GPUpdate is one of HRT partners, so its for sure.
At least their drivers will do some test.
And looks like they will use an iteration of this "F110B" for 2011.

If...

They were using the former Futurecom TME base near Ingolstadt, Germany, from which Kolles ran his DTM and LMS teams.

The F110 tub is in the bottom right of the photo. Its the only component Willis wouild need to re-use and still produce a car with a different mechanical layout and aero map.

no. I think the thickness, or rigidity had to be increased for 2011.

Im new, so please don't flame me!

So we now know that HRT will use the 2010 chassis for the first test with modifications, maybe the 2011 car is still in the wind tunnel at Grove?

The 2011 car will have Williams transmission and rear end along with Willis aero, do we think in general this will be a step up to be reasonably competitive to 107%?

Plus a major spanish sponsor likely to be title sponsor?

Drivers list could well be

Pedro Dela Rosa/Bottas (Williams TD)
Mikhail Aleshin
Josef Kral
Davide Valsecchi
Luca Filippi
Christian Klien

Why would they have an F110 tub? Looks like the standard HRT Dallara to me.

F110 is the chassis name

My mistake, I thought he meant the Toyota.

Is there a source for that ? whilst I can see Williams selling their gearbox and time in the wind tunnel I can't see them sharing aero data/technology..

Developed by Geoff Willis, not Williams team .

I thought Geoff Willis is part of Hispania, and has designed the 2011 car? its was mentioned in the interview with Carabante and told Radio Marca in Spanish that it is Geoff Willis who has designed the 2011 HRT designed will give us many joys".

Link has

I meant Geoff Willis not the Williams team

Look at what "crafty" wrote ;)

doh, thought you meant williams

Does anyone know if Andy Soucek is one of the drivers Hispania are considering? I'm afraid Pedro de la Rosa's stock has fallen more than the Greek economy!

If he's got a big enough sack of cash....

He would fit in with the Spanish "team" Hispania are trying to create and he was Virgin Racing reserve driver, does he have enough funding though?

I love watching the constant cliffhanger situations that you get with low budget teams. Maybe it's because I'm British, but I love watching to see if they will survive. Maybe it's why I was a fan of Minardi for many years. You don't get these "What's going on?" within the midfield and established teams.

I agree Minardifans, the constant battles on this thread alone make me read this forum alone!

I think Hispania will survive, ok they had a crap car last year, but and this is a big but! if Geoff Willis is given the freedom to carry out the work needed i cant see why HRT is not with the Virgin 2011 car.

Think about what José Ramón Carabante & Colin Kolles have stated.

They need to use a new chassis for 2011 as 2010 will not work.
They have got support from Williams for next 2 years for gearbox and rear ends of cars
They were quite close to Virgin without every upgrading 2010 chassis
They are close to announcing "major Spanish sponsor"

Its believed that 2011 car is being designed and built in England (Grove) and Germany (Kolles base) so im quite optimistic for them

Do you have any feelings on the 2011 sponsors or drivers?

I get where you are coming from, but HRT seems like a different beast than Minardi was (at least during the 2000s when I watched them). Minardi could at least put a car together, HRT are essentially a group of outsourced, leased, or rented equipment and personnel. I'm very interested to see how they will make it to the grid next year.

I don't want them to be on the grid. They don't deserve it.

I don't agree, the team gained the initial approval, they deserve it, the goalposts obviously moved for them, not their fault at all, and it does produce a big gap from what I have seen when teams have collosal pursestrings.
The bigger teams can carry on with a huge development, granted they have had a year to sort out a new chassis/base to build the chassis, but the problem is HRT don't look attractive performance wise, no performance = possible uninterested potential sponsors. would you rather have your logos small on a red prancing horse, or big on a backmarker with no history? I personally would rather have my name emblazoned huge billboard style on a backmarker, but what do i know?!
They struggled/are struggling, They have a 2010 car that raced a whole season, would have been borderline mostly in the 107%. I think it will be another disappointing season performance wise, I just hope sponsors are a little more forthcoming for them and on top of that, wouldn't it be great if they did have some demon engineering on a budget.

just to add, i agree with whoever said about the smaller teams having that 'spark', I really like it when jordan sprang up the ranks. I like that, the paintworks, the trying to build a brand and a race crafted team. I hope names stay the same, but obviously people buy each other out.

As long as HRT show for the races, they belong.

Personally I would run a F1 team, somewhat differently from how HRT chose to run theirs, however the economical landscape naturally play a hand here. But setting up a brand new team, with driver who have never raced in F1 before, on of arguable ultimate talent at that. Is really placing yourself behind the eight ball performance wise. The shuffling of drivers over the season only makes that even more of an impediment.

Senna had shown enough to warrant a try (my personal misgivings none withstanding), he should however have been teamed with a driver, who had raced F1 in anger, rather than the musical chair versions he was up against.