Hispania Racing Team boss Collin Kolles says Lotus, Virgin not an issue – Formula 1 news
Formula 1 team Hispania Racing Team boss Collin Kolles has said that if they get their act together, beating Lotus and Virgin Racing Team in the 2011 season will not be a problem for them.
HRT’s 2011 car is built by the former Red Bull man Geoff Willis. Talking about the car he said, “There are experienced people working on the car, but we have a completely new car, and we will work on it and try to improve it.”
Kolles was well confident about his car as he explained that the car is completely different from the 2010 car which was just for representation of the team on the grid. He further added that the new package will challenge the midfield running teams.
In 2010, HRT were the slowest car on the grid with constantly increasing distance from the pole sitters. HRT along with Williams and Virgin are the three Cosworth powered machines in 2011. Lotus have moved to Renault-powered machine which contradicts with
Kolles’ ambition.
HRT were heavily criticised over the course of last year that their financial position is not as strong as some other teams.
Kolles dismissed the rumours and said, “I think that other teams are in deeper trouble than we are, that's number one. I think that in terms of budget requirements and in terms of debts, we are in very good shape compared to others.”
However, HRT are the only team still using the old car and sometimes not even using the car. They missed the Jerez test session to gather some sponsors for their car. In addition, HRT left the Barcelona session on fourth day.
They are yet to reveal their 2011 challenger as only computer-generated pictures were revealed few days back. They are also a couple of drivers’ shorts on their line-up as they are yet to name Narain Karthikeyan’s teammate and a reserve driver. Vitantonio
Liuzzi was called for testing and did drive the car but it is not yet confirmed whether he will drive for the team.
In these circumstances, it a bit tough ask for Narain alone to take the fight on the grid for Kolles in a Cosworth-powered machine. The HRT management said that they will reveal their new car in the Bahrain testing session which has been cancelled due to
the political unrest in the country. Let’s now see when do HRT actually reveal their car and how well they fare in the 2011 season.
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