Regarding Alguersuari let's wait and see if his career is that over so he have to go down to a team like HRT. At Monaco he was doing better than Buemi till the accident and in Canada he did better. If Jaime keeps on doing this I would not count on Jaime going to such a bad seat.

LOL. Buemi was ahead of him for the whole race. Alguersuari (cleverly but sneakily) got past when Buemi moved over to allow Hamilton to lap him on the same lap as "the accident".

That's still means Jaime was doing better than Buemi. He saw a chance and took it to overtake his team mate. Many drivers do it and as yourself said it is a pretty clever thing to do.

But of course you guys are free to dance in the grave of Jaime already and predict he'll end up in HRT. But I think things are turning around and Jaime is starting to do better than Buemi.

I like Jamie and, although I am not convinced, hope you are right. I fear however that the decision on his future with STR might already have been taken.

OK, so now we really can compare HRT to Andrea Moda

eh! ... no ... the real meaning of the sentence is a fine of 450 euros

Next time, maybe.

The next two races could make HRT closer to the teams ahead. With the ban on engine mapping change this weekend and off throttle hot exhaust in British GP would mean that Team Lotus have more to lose than HRT . If Geoff Willis was focusing more on the aero in general , HRT are bound to make some improvements with the upcoming updates. All hot exhaust Teams have to kind of re-evaluate their upgrade plans. So catching Team Lotus which I thought would be impossible might actually happen with this mid season Rule changes.

Yes but could this be a disadvantage to smaller teams since all teams now that they cant run aggressive engine maps in quali and change for the race especially with the 107% rule? Its obviously going to hurt Red Bull!

None of the new teams use hot blowing, cosworth does not support it.

Edited! as Lotus use Renault engines and I am an idiot.

The need for aggressive engine maps is more for the hot off throttle exhaust blowing teams than teams who don't use it. So the teams higher in the constructor championship except Williams are going to suffer more than the smaller teams.

It's the difference between relative performance and absolute performance, as usual - if a rule change made all cars 1 second slower, it wouldn't bring any teams closer to each other, but if a rule change makes all cars 5% slower, it will hurt faster teams more than slower ones because they've got more to lose.

Not saying those figures of 1 second or 5% have any bearing on the current issues in the sport, just speaking generally.

Actually, can we give a measure (laptime) of the effect of the hot-blown diffusor? I'm afraid it's a overspoken matter... will anything change?

Any difference this ban might make in bunching up the grid has nothing to do with whether you measure potential laptime loss as percentages or seconds. It has everything to do with some teams making very effective use of over-run (RBR), some teams making average use of it (Ferrari) while still others like HRT, Virgin making poor or no use of it at all.

'Not saying those figures of 1 second or 5% have any bearing on the current issues in the sport, just speaking generally.'

I know! I read that statement too and it does not in any way make up for the logical stringency in your first paragraph which is what I was addressing anyway. Way to act obtuse, sir.

But anyway, if this ban has any effect at all -and it should since F1 teams do not divest resources just for the fun of it- then HRT et al should 'move closer' to the front in outright pace. This ban is Good News^TM for HRT.

My apologies, I've gone and confused myself. I thought I had a point, but it all made much more sense in my head.

Go Hispania!

Sorry, but if im not mistaken, Liuzzzzzzi was the 3rd driver to score points for Red Bull, following Coulthard and Klein in Australia. But good luck to him, I want to see HRT beat the pseudo 'Lotus' mob - how have they the front to use the name.

You're right too. It's been a rough twenty minutes in this thread.

I'd love to see HRT do well as well, but just because I want to see all three new teams improve and show the nay-sayers that it can be done by small teams.

As I understand it, there are 5 teams that don't run off throttle ( Hot) blown diffusers. They are; Sauber, Williams, STR, HRT and Virgin. It is surmised that a fully optimised system seen on the Red Bull is between 0.5 and 0.8s a lap dependinding on circuit.
I suspect the ban will advesely affect RBR more as it will cause problems rebalancing the car with respect to the aggressive rake they run. I suspect the change in rule will help Suaber most and disadvantage Team Lotus most.

It'll take some time before Liuzzi beats Heidfeld or Petrov....

he meant team lotus, not the renault lada lotus

I know, I was just reffering to http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2011/1366.html

The unintended irony being Liuzzi would've been a much better choice than Heidfeld, though I guess hindsight is 20/20.

REALLY!! , You think this? Why?

As I said, I mean it would've been a better choice retrospectively - I'd say there's nothing to choose between Heidfeld and Liuzzi at the start of the season. Seven races in, however, we see that Liuzzi, after years of only being impressive once or twice a season, needs to be a team leader to shine - and he would have been that at Renault. His performances for Hispania have been the most impressive of anyone's performances for the three new teams, and while there's no guarantee he would've been comparably good in the Renault, my money's on he'd be doing better than Heidfeld is. I still think Force India should've ditched Sutil instead of Liuzzi.

As I said, I mean it would've been a better choice retrospectively - I'd say there's nothing to choose between Heidfeld and Liuzzi at the start of the season. Seven races in, however, we see that Liuzzi, after years of only being impressive once or twice a season, needs to be a team leader to shine - and he would have been that at Renault. His performances for Hispania have been the most impressive of anyone's performances for the three new teams, and while there's no guarantee he would've been comparably good in the Renault, my money's on he'd be doing better than Heidfeld is. I still think Force India should've ditched Sutil instead of Liuzzi.

Anyone would look good against Karthikeyan, i can't see how that is supposed to be impressive.

Ouch! I have to agree that Karthikeyan's position is looking tenuous. Its all well and good for pundits to postulate that Hispania should have taken 2 pay drivers but to realise the potential of your package you need a quick experienced driver. Arguably Luizzi's 13th place finish will net the team more revenue from TV monies than Karthikeyan's sponsorship. Its for that reason that I think Alguesari is a shoe in. If its a toss up between two drivers with similar funding the smart move is always to take the quicker driver.
Unless STR are taken over I don't see Alguesari seeing out the season.

HRT's Valencia warm-up

Timo Glock says HRT has taken a "giant step" in performance. I hope that is true, this article is pretty positive publicity for HRT especially with potential sponsors in Spain!

Charles Pic's pole position time in GP2 was 1:46,6. Karthikeyan's time today was 1:46,9. Seems there is not that much difference between the slowest F1 cars and the fastest GP2 drivers.

If we compare this with GP3, Frenchman Tom Dillmann was fastest today with 1:58,9 so the difference between GP2 and GP3 in laptimes is actually bigger as between GP2 and GP3.

Its not a real comparison as you are comparing a GP2 pole time agains an F1 free practice race simulation time. Its a surmise that has been used before by less creditable site to knock Hispania. I suggest you comapre Quali time for both GP2 and F1.

On the BBC FP3 feed, they suggested that Geoff Willis is in line for Promotion to Team Principal, what would happen to Colin Kolles?

I believe Hispania have an ex Red Bull Aero guy with them now, could he become Technical Director in place of Geoff Willis, if he did get promoted?

I was asked about the new Toyota-engines and KERS rumour today.

Anyone heard anything about that?

After the abomination that was last season ... ??

Im Jamaican and ive seen the good stuff but you gotta give me some of that Sensimilla your smoking .. .

This sounds like wild speculation; The problems with any tie up with Toyota are;
Cologne have been attempting to offload their obsolete technology since 2010 at exhorbitant prices.
The RVX09 was the least powerful unit in 2009, will they develop it to match the Cosworth's output.
AFAIK Hispania's deal with Cosworth runs to 2012, so any deal would mean paying off Cosworth and then paying Toyota whatever price they're asking.
The only way I see a change to Toyota working is if Cologne are offering an integrated bespoke KERS package with the deal.

This again? Sound like Karabante have no money for full package including TF110 (whatever they done to it)

Its not a Chassis deal. Its an engine supply deal.

Why would they want Toyota engines anyway? They're probably not (much) more powerful than the Cosworths and most likely not cheaper either. Also the Toyota KERS never ran successfully, so why not just buy the Williams one that does seem to work without too much drama.

Doesn't make much sense to me. I could understand them buying the chassis or maybe some engineering services to develop their new car, but the engine?

That makes sense as well - they have a tie up with Williams already.

The optimum solution is for Coswoth to provide their own bespoke KERS thats as tightly integrated into their unit as Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari have achieved. The problem with retrofitting an off the shelf package as Williams have done is that its just not as efficient.
There is strong speculation that Williams may be etting Lotus Renault's engine supply.

I don't know about that but we may see a certain Gary Savage at HRT if Willis can lure him.

Gary Savage is good guy.

Kolles if the leaves, so also are being sent out Team Koller former peoples?...

The BBC boys were saying that Willis reckons they'll update about 2 tenths at every race till the end.
I can't see them doing much even if they find 2 seconds though. That will only put them level with lotus at the moment. They're 3-4 seconds away from just making Q2

Lets recap, Willis/Eeckelaert/Savage will be promoted, Willis possibly taking TP role.
Then Carabante himself is suggesting that if Kolles doesn't agree he'll asked to leave the team.

Interesting.

It's even easier.

HRT have a contract with Kolles' company (Kolles-TME) for the provision of services, facilities and personal in order to run the team.

Willis is HRT employee which Kolles is not

HRT pays a contract to Kolles-TME. HRT pays a salary to Willis.


HRT is, step by step, building its own structure. Hiring personal, buying and renting facilities and gaining a valuable know-how that obviuosly they were lacking so Kolles' company is less and less required.

I think its now obvious that if the new teams want to bridge the gap to the midfield they all need to run KERS. For all the progress Team Lotus claim to have made the are still 1 second away from the slowest midfiel teamn who btw are running KERS.

Sounds like Ricciardo to replace Narain for Silverstone (and maybe longer)
So does this mean that they will be better off with all Ricciardos Red Bull sponsorships as opposed to Karthikeyans TATA sponsorship and other money.
and will we have 6 cars plastered in Red Bull stickers now