HRT slow in deciding on a team mate for Narain Karthikeyan – Formula 1 update
Hispania Racing Team (HRT) officials told members of the media that they have a lot of time until the season opener and that they will utilise every minute of the remaining time to decide the teams other driver. They are still busy in locating a sponsor for their new car, F111.
While other teams are busy gathering data on their new cars and optimising them for their drivers, HRT officials told the press that, “We will announce in the next few weeks our lineup for 2011.” They are also the only team that have not yet revealed their car for the 2011 season and rather used their 2010 car to test the Pirelli tyres.
As far as performance is concerned, HRT has not been up to the mark in the last three tests. In Valencia, HRT driver, Narain Karthikeyan, drove on all three days and their performance was not impressive. Then they missed the Jerez test session in order to look for sponsors to support their new car. In Barcelona, they did try out a driver from Force India, Vitantonio Liuzzi, but never confirmed him as Karthikeyan co-driver.
Talking about this whole performance, a spokesperson of HRT said, “We are not worried about the results of the test. Everybody knows that the lap times during a test are not the most important thing, because the teams use the test in order to prove and make changes in the car.”
Only 20 days remain until the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) deadline to announce the driver and only four days until the last test. HRT must select someone quickly if they are to be competitive in the forthcoming season. Formula one supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, said the other day that there is one too many teams in the formula one circuit and a couple of teams should be left out for next season. He said, “Twelve teams is too many, I'd like to see ten, that's enough,” HRT seems a prime candidate to be left out if they don’t tie up their loose ends and at least finish in the midfield this season.
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