Hispania Racing Team unsure about second full season driver for 2011 Formula 1 season
Hispania Racing Team is the only team on the Formula 1 grid that has not announced its second full season driver for the 2011 season.
The team is taking a bit too long to make this decision and it seems that in the end, they will announce a decision regarding this matter right before the Australian Grand Prix begins.
“We're not worried about the results of the test. Everybody knows that the lap times during a test is not the most important thing, because the teams use the test in order to prove and make changes in the car,” according to the team’s spokesman.
The team revealed a couple of weeks ago that Narain Karthikeyan is going to be one of its full season drivers but the second seat is still empty. It was believed that Tonio Liuzzi was going to be the team’s second full season driver after he tested for the
team at the pre-season test session in Barcelona but it seems that HRT want to think more than twice before making their final decision.
Reports suggest that HRT want a driver that brings a major sponsor or some ‘cash’ with him like Narain Karthikeyan did and since Tonio Liuzzi is not willing to bring any money for the team as a result of which, he might not become HRT’s second driver.
According to the pre-season test session results in Barcelona, Narain Karthikeyan was outpaced by Tonio Liuzzi which is going to make the team’s management think twice before passing an official decision or statement against Liuzzi.
It seems that if HRT do not find a driver that is willing to bring a big sponsor with him, the team will then have to consider Tonio and maybe some other options but until then, the driver they chose is not going to be as comfortable as they would want him
to be after such a short noticed decision.
Tonio was forced to leave Force India for the 2011 Formula 1 season as the team wanted to replace him with the team’s reserve driver Paul di Resta alongside Adrian Sutil despite the fact that the Italian had a contract with the team that was valid until
the end of 2011.
Nevertheless, reports suggest that since HRT are desperately looking for a driver, who can bring a useful amount of money with him to the team instead of an experienced and talented driver, the team’s financial scenario is currently in a weak state.
Let’s hope the team reveals its criteria soon as they have not revealed their second driver for the final pre-season test session either that is expected to take place in Barcelona.
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