People who arrive in Formula 1 after successful forays in other walks of life have an alarming tendency to know all the answers – and to get things horribly wrong as a result. The Carabante Family was a good example of this concept, although they left with a profit after 18 months, despite not really doing very much beyond finding Colin Kolles to make things happen.
Thesan Capital, the new owners of HRT, are beginning to show similar signs of f1newboy-itis with plans to replace Tonio Liuzzi with a Spanish touring car driver who never showed he was good enough to make it when he had the chance. This is not smart. There will be changes in the staff in the months ahead and it will be interesting to see if Thesan Capital is smart enough to keep the right people and lose the wrong ones.
Despite stories to the contrary the question of the team name is really not an issue. The problem comes with the chassis, but as this is called an “HRT” rather than a Hispania, there is no reason why the team cannot change its name to Happy Racing Team and have cars called HRTs. If they were really smart they would sell the whole thing on to Honda and F1 could have a new Honda Racing Team…
There are also some daft stories suggesting that the teams who joined F1 in 2010 being bound to stay for five years.
How can this be possible when they Concorde Agreement lasts only three?
Hi Joe,
Happy birthday for 4th July. Any advance on the Kolles to Williams rumour from a few weeks back? And who is the not-good-enough Spanish touring car driver to whom you refer?
James
JamesF1,
Wrong birthday, I fear… Villa
I was surprised to hear rumours about Liuzzi being moved aside. Surely the whole reason Red Bull have paid HRT to run Daniel Ricciardo was so they could see how he measured up to a known quantity like Liuzzi over the remaining races of the season?
I would question the continued use of the R as Racing before the meaning of the H and the T.
Joe, who on earth is that Spanish touring car driver? Javier Villa?
PT
Yes.
I understand the agreement doesn’t allow the teams to change the chassis name without entire agreement from other teams. However any F1 team is still a business and the chassis name is still a asset that is a sale-able item particularly if you have accumulated enough season points to make the asset worth the return.
Winning for the glory is nice but you still need to make money, also how do you enforce a five year rule if you go broke
LOL Joe, Agree with the name thing. Its not as if we didn’t come up with enough possible meanings of HRT since they entered!
Getting the Carabantes to step aside makes sense, after all why have them there when they do not own the place.
But I fully agree that getting Liuzzi out of the car would be plain stupid now. First of all he will be a stable factor with information on the car AND the one Red Bull would want to compare Ricciardo with (and what they pay for, I presume).
I read somewhere (might be just rumour) that Nairain will still be doing some Friday practice as well, instead of Liuzzi so that should settle the money with TATA, I guess.
And if Villa would have any serious budget available, certainly he would have been on the candidate lists at the start of the year. So why put him in for more than the odd Friday practice?
Happy Racing Team!
I agree with Mark Balsom – Liuzzi might not be the future of any F1 team but he’s relatively solid and is a known quantity and certainly the best driver HRT have had in a car yet and the only marker Ricciardo can be marked against or learn from.
I know they are making lots of noises about building a Spanish team but surely you only take on average drivers if they bring a whopping great cash sponsor.
I guess the FIA could be holding some sort of returnable bond or has committed to return part of the entry fee after 5 years. They entered under the terms of the FIA entry procedure as much as under the concord agreement. The website has already been rebranded as HRT rather than Hispania. I assume the new owners have written off 2011 completely and therefore see no benefit in paying for liuzzi, sadly. Shame really since they are currently humiliating virgin in the standings.
agree that replacing liuzzi would not be a smart move. was especially looking forward to how ricciardo progresses and if he could even match him on the odd ocassion.
i do actually like this logo (a bit iron man and holly-woody, but better than the old one), and the changes mentioned so far seem ok:
http://www.yallaf1.com/2011/07/19/hrt-new-owner-already-making-changes/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Yallaf1com+%28YallaF1.com%29
Moving Liuzzi will only hurt HRT. He’s a decent driver, especially for a team as badly off as they are.
I’m wondering Joe, now that Paul Di Resta is beating Adrian Sutil regularly in qualifying and often in the race, do you think that Force India were right to replace Liuzzi after all?
Brian Lelas,
No, I don’t. Di Resta is good, no doubt about it but Liuzzi is good too. It s just a shame that Force India has treated him so shoddily – and have still to pay him…
Maybe Prodrive could buy them and call it Prodrivo Espanol.
I really do feel for Luizzi, I always felt that if he had landed in the right team he could have done much much better.
Is his race seat somehow tied to a settlement deal with former employer Force India? His contract seemingly got broken and we haven’t heard much in the way of lawsuits or settlements.
being an owner of an S2000 i would love to see Honda back in F1 and giving it a solid go again
The Carabantes left with a profit? Amazing. I never would have guessed.
” If they were really smart they would sell the whole thing on to Honda and F1 could have a new Honda Racing Team…”
Joe, can you explain this part please? I mean, is Honda thinking to come back to Formula 1?
John Q,
No, but it would be a smart thing to do!!
Javier Villa is not great, but “never showed he was good enough to make it when he had the chance” could equally apply to Liuzzi in the grand scheme of things…
Any idea why Villa and not a better young Spanish driver like Soucek, Costa or Clos? Money?
Paul,
Villa never made it to F1. Liuzzi did and has been in F1 for many years. A slight difference.
I presume the driver you talk of is Tiago Monteiro? Did nothing of great value in F1 and not doing much better in WTCC either. Another waste of a race seat to a pointless driver.
Richard T,
You presume wrongly. Monteiro is Portuguese. The driver in question is Villa
HRT = Human Resources (dept) Terrible?
Honda? Again? I think we had enough of it in F1
I’m assuming Villa has a lot of money behind him? Not sure how else he got to GP2 at the age of 17 and I can’t see why on earth else they’d want to replace Liuzzi with him.
Joe,
“Villa never made it to F1″.
Not yet, no. But then he is still only 23 years old.
Joe,
Force India haven’t paid Tonio? You mean for the last year of his contract (2011)? That’s being kept very quiet altogether. I thought they’d put him into the HRT?
So, just to clarify one last time and hopefully to put this discussion to bed, if you could choose two drivers from Tonio Liuzzi, Adrian Sutil and Paul Di Resta, which two would you go for? And of the ones you wouldn’t put in a car, why not?
Thanks, Brian
Brian Lelas,
I don’t have to choose… That is their job.
@ Johan
Jaime Algersuari had his first race at 19.
Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were all Villa’s age when they won F1 World Championships.
Brian Lelas,
Yes, but they were quick.
Khaled,
With respect, Honda as a manufacturer has contributed greatly to F1. They belong in F1 as an engine supplier. They Proved again it’s very difficult to be successful as an engine and chassis manufacturer. Most get the same result…
Hormone Replacement Therapy?
Well Tiago Monteiro did get a podium…
Villa may not be spectacular, but this isn’t the first time that his name is linked to Formula 1. If I remember correctly, F1 Racing carried an article in 2005 according to which the Spanish government (or sports authority or some regional govt.) was planning to exploit the sudden burst of F1 popularity following Alonso’s success by creating a Spanish F1 team and grooming a very young 17-year old Javier Villa for the task. That is now becoming a reality somewhat, though HRT has nothing to do with the Spanish government.
Seems totally strange that Villa moved from GP2 to WTCC – maybe he was short on sponsors or funds. But Joe, the classic example of “F1 newboy-itis” has to be Wirth Research who thought they could make a mark with the CFD-alone approach. They’d be looking to swallow those words now!
Don’t forget that BSA stands for British Small Arms and that Cosworth could have named their engines after a gramophone company. BSR V8 anyone.
Tony,
But who will want the engines if there are better options?
Joe,
Where does Colin Kolles fit into this now?
Joe,
Yes they did very well as engine suppliers in the 80′s/early 90′s. But it was only a couple of years ago that they pulled out in dramatic fashion. Isn’t it too early to think of returning?
Are you sure about the Villa rumour, Joe? I can’t see Thesan giving him a free ride just because he’s from Spain – after paying off Carabante, they need good drivers with serious money (bring on Ricciardo). But where’s Villa’s money? He’s always struggled for budget in GP2 since losing his drive at Racing Engineering. So what about Javi himself as the origin of these rumours, in order to create enough buzz for the story to become a self-fulfilling prophecy?
It’s what BasCB says: “And if Villa would have any serious budget available, certainly he would have been on the candidate lists at the start of the year. So why put him in for more than the odd Friday practice?”
md,
No they are real stories
the hiring of Mr. Luis Perez Sala (NO, not as a driver, as a consultant) might make a bit more sense for the team than getting Villa as a driver
http://translate.google.cz/translate?hl=cs&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&sl=es&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://www.elconfidencial.com/formula1/2011/perez-sala-ficha-asesor-hrt-carabante-20110720-81672.html
Brian,
By that standard most other drivers are dismal failures by the time they’re 23.
Tony
Don’t forget that BSA stands for British Small Arms and that Cosworth could have named their engines after a gramophone company. BSR V8 anyone.
Bimingham Small Arms to be precise
JohnQ, Kahaled, Andy C & Joe.
“Honda will do what ever they want when they want”. to quote a famous ‘Ron’ F1 & Honda are not finished yet .
Johan,
I’m not saying everyone is expected to be Sebastian Vettel by the time they’re 23, but if you consider that only Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button are the only two drivers who were around the age of 30 when they won a world title in the last decade, it is clear that the youngsters are being judged by their peers and at the moment their peers are dominating the sport.
Joe,
Nicely dodged. But you are right, it is up to Force India to decide. Personally I think they might have done the right thing in the end
Brian,
Webber is second and Alonso third in the standings right now and both did well last year which suggests that the youngsters domination is not quite what you think it is.
Joe
I believe Liuzzi will keep his drive at HRT because he is now managed by Enrico Zanarini who is also a HRT sponsorship agent.
I was lead to believe that Liuzzi had been paid off by VJ Mallya (2M Euros) which was reported on a Swiss website several month ago.
I also believe that he may get a 2012 drive with Team Lotus replacing Trulli as Lotus wanted to sign him as a reserve driver this year after he was cut loose from Force India. Lotus only then signed Karun Chanhdok as a reserve driver after Liuzzi signed his race deal with HRT for 2011.
Denis,
Zanarini is not necessarily a sponsorship agent for HRT since it was taken over. Sponsorship agents in any case are only working on percentages and do not have a say in the choice of drivers. Colin Kolles is keen on Liuzzi. It also makes no sense to bring in an untried Spanish driver. Anyway Thesan Capital is funded by Japanese money and the whole Spanish nationality thing sounds like it was invented for the Spanish media. Money men do not care about nationalty. They care about making profits and the Spanish economy is in trouble so HRT would be wise to be looking to the east: to Russia, the Middle East and China where there is real money about.
You were led to believe wrongly about the money. I spoke to Tonio last weekend and he said that some money has finally started arriving (this is the 2010 money) but there is still much more to be paid.
The Lotus idea is possible but at the moment there is nothing agreed.