HRT has announced a plan to create a dynamic new image for the Spanish-owned F1 team by employing the talents of Daniel Simon, the futuristic illustrator and vehicle designer who was responsible for a book called Cosmic Motors, which has made him a sought-after talent in Hollywood circles. He has been involved with Bugatti and with Tron: Legacy, an upcoming Walt Disney movie.
“Being offered a blank canvas by the Hispania Racing and with it the opportunity to bring to life elements of Cosmic Motors, was something I just couldn’t pass up,” Simon said. “It’s going to be an exciting journey as Hispania Racing evolves and grows and I’m looking forward to the challenge of creating a strong visual statement for the team.”
Simon will create a new corporate image for the team, replacing the rather drab, battleship grey that was used last year.
British TV’s Top Gear programme described Simon’s skills as being “like putting Barbarella, James Bond, Star Wars and an F1 car in a blender”.
joeblogsf1 
Well, he is obviously well proven at designing vaporware…
Good move. Hopefully HRT will be able to attract inverstors so they can up their game!
Ahh, I wish Sauber would do a similar thing. Their last year cars were visually as boring and dull as they can be!
So, they will still be slow, but they will look great doing it.
April 1st is still a ways away isn’t it?
Presumably they are doing this to try and attract a younger, more dynamic brand of advertiser and supporter, rather than the menopausal women attracted by the team name…
Will we see Narain Karthikeyan decked up in a space suit for the launch?
ha, so I guess they still won’t have any sponsors then – strange group those HRT folk
Image revamp, crazy. What they need is a decent car and to not mess their drivers around – then they can build the image they want to – on the race track.
I rather liked Hispania’s ‘gun metal’ colour.
But hey, as long as it’s original and doesn’t break national or international health legislation like Renault’s 😉
Their car might still be slow, but at least it should look good.
Cosmic Motors…….
WoW!
Well, good for them, I guess.
I have to admit, I find Colin Kolles’s never-say-die attitude quite engaging. Settled drivers — actual sponsors — new car — who needs ’em? You have $500,000? Here’s your firesuit, son — get your kit on.
There’s more than a whiff of — and I am aware this is blasphemy — FW running his team out of a telephone box.
If they can come out with a car that looks great and isn’t _too_ disastrously slow, they might do alright. And there’s even the chance that the F110 might by coincidence be well suited to the new regulations or new tyres, and they could snatch up a point or two somewhere…
Now they just have to find the money to build a car!
Interesting concept. Does Mr. Simon knows anything of their situation or not?
Blank canvas – is this a polite way of saying, “they have no current sponsors and so, Daniel Simon, frankly, go for it – we need the publicity”?
Cough cynic, cough.
This is huge, as obviously the only thing standing between HRT and the World Championship has been their image….
Please tell me David Simon will actually have some sufficiently-functional cars to wave his creative wand at. Forgive me for being sceptical, but Hispania is the only team to have not provisioned us with a launch date, which doesn’t cause me to have a huge amount of faith in the car’s existence, let alone the matter of them making the 107% mark.
It may be that Colin Kolles knows something I don’t, but appearing to put the car before the horse makes me just a touch panicky.
Where have I heard this before? Oh yeah…
from”Chicago”:
Give ’em the old razzle dazzle
Razzle dazzle ’em
Give ’em act with lots of flash in it
And the reaction will be passionate
Give ’em the old hocus pocus
Bread and feather ’em
How can they see with sequins in their eyes?
What if your hinges all are rusting?
What if, in fact, you’re just disgusting ?
Razzle dazzle ’em
And they’ll never catch wise!
Eh Eh Eh Eh
Ah! Ah! Ah!
Give ’em the old razzle dazzle
Razzle dazzle ’em
Give ’em a show that’s so splendiferous
Row after row will grow vociferous
Give ’em the old flim flam flummox
Fool and fracture ’em
How can they hear the truth above the roar?
Throw ’em a fake and a finagle
They’ll never know you’re just a bagel,
Razzle dazzle ’em
And they’ll beg you for more!
Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Give ’em the old razzle dazzle
Razzle dazzle ’em
Back since the days of old Methuselah
Everyone loves the big bambooz-a-ler
Give ’em the old three ring circus
Stun and stagger ’em
When you’re in trouble, go into your dance
Though you are stiffer than a girder
They let ya get away with a murder
Razzle dazzle ’em
And you’ve got a romance
Give ’em the old
Razzle dazzle
Razzle dazzle ’em
Give ’em an act that’s unassailable
They’ll wait a year ’til your available!
Give ’em the old
Double whammy
Daze and dizzy ’em
Show ’em the first rate sorcerer you are
Long as you keep ’em way off balance
How can they spot you got no talents?
Razzle dazzle ’em
Razzle dazzle ’em
Razzle dazzle ’em
And they’ll make you a star!
Thanks Joe,
I hope that the HRT gets a bit of a speed lift to match.
Looking great doesn’t help when your car is 3 sec off the pace…
Cheers
JF
Re: Tron legacy.
It’s not up and coming because it’s been up and come. Rubbish too, but the designs were great. The HRT is going to look awesome when it gets lapped.
It’s going to take more than just a paint job for anybody to get even remotely excited about HRT ……..
You would think that with all the strife HRT was in, the last thing they’d be thinking about is a rebranding effort…
I thought the HRT branding a look were very depressing and blah…
At least the cars will LOOK better now!!
I thought the HRT branding and look were very depressing and blah…
At least the cars will LOOK better now!!
I can’t believe they’re spending money on stuff like this.
Hot air.
Looks like an interesting project.
If they wanted to revamp their corporate image, how about putting a decent driver in the second car.
With respect to narain, he has been out of tge sport for so long. Hope that bundle of cash was worth it mr kolles…
Very nice, but it might be better if they thought about how to make the car faster…
Just about everyone else is going to say the obvious, about Mutton dressed as Lamb, and regulations, though that chap can really draw, thank you for the tip, so whilst this is too far OT for publication, and you’ve been away doing normal things, here’s a fascinating story about how disconnected we still are:
http://www.bythom.com/hostage.htm
Thom has a brief position statement in his Jan 20 entry on the main page.
I was looking for a camera review, (it was there, done whilst he was nearly up the creek in Chile, at a guess. Thom’s books are superb if you use the same brand of camera, he’s a one man research institute) but instead got a insight into how oil rich South America is being silly. Maldonado better watch out: did you hear what Chavez did to a judge the other week? Putting “chavez judge” into a search gets the story.
Totally personal, because Thom Hogan knows his trade, and by speaking up, educated me to the inherent design flaws you need to know about in cameras. Well, i respect the guy, because it was a steep climb figuring out digital, i think there about, ooh, three journalists on the web not spreading overly optimistic interpretations, and i once had a silly expensive Kodak habit, which eclipsed all the best (fairly sensible) gear i could lay my hands on. Digital really is producing better images than film, now, but it’s i think been two, mabye three years, since you weren’t having to think back to the difficulty of exposing Kodachrome. (and that’s not exactly gone, i think they were selling upgrades) Wasn’t a huge gain initially. Kodak own all the critical patents, but quit. I picked up a big Nikon the other day, and all (39?) buttons felt immediately in the right place. I guess that’s my comment on design: it’s very hard to improve on what works well, we, or at least I, don’t adapt very fast. I presently have a disposable film camera which came in a proverbial box of cornflakes. No complaints. And a just purchased camera phone, supposedly really more a serious little compact camera than a phone, not shabby, which i have hidden out of sight, because i don’t understand how to use that . . .
Only value in this is a hint as to how ridiculous we all are about fuel oil, maybe something for later and not now.
Thanks for the stories, as always.
yours,
– john k
Cute. Unfortunately, what they need is a dynamic new car, not a dynamic new image.
yeah, a blank canvas un-interupted by sponsors’ logos!
Plenty of IndyCar teams have failed to make their Dallaras look interesting with unusual liveries.
Don’t they have better things to spend their money on?
Also, am I the only person that liked the Hispania colour scheme (once the red and yellow replaced the white down the sides)?
They looked so much better whenever they removed the drivers’ names from the side as well.
I can see some dissent from the drivers if they have to wear those overalls.
I think all the cynics should be ashamed, they criticised Honda’s ‘earth dream’ livery, but look what a success that car was. 😉
have they got a car yet? or are they going to use 2010’s donkeys?