There are reports coming out of China that Ma Qinghua, the 24 year-old Shanghai driver, will race for the HRT team in 2013. Ma made his debut during with the team on Friday at Monza becoming the first Chinese-born driver to drive an F1 car at an FIA-sanctioned event. He also took part in practice sessions in Singapore and Abu Dhabi. The team has yet to confirm the news.
Spanish after some chinese economic boom money.
But is Ma big enough to lure real chinese dough.
One of your best headlines yet Joe…
It makes sense to sign him. China is a large and important market, India is already involved in F1 so having Narain Karthikeyan make way for a chinese driver may encourage a chinese firm(s) to get more heavily involved. The first step to a chinese F1 team perhaps? I just hope they are based in ‘the triangle’ though should that happen.
So who’s leaving the team? Karthikeyan or De La Rosa?
The team denied it, according to other journalists … but, isn’t it time for China, that large market, to enter F1 world?
Worrying, a very slow driver in a very slow care……………. Should make race day interesting!!!!
You make it sound like their in a different class of motorsport.
Aren’t they?
They’re not their…………….. Anyway, F1 is in danger of becoming a two tier sport, similar to the mid 80′s days of turbos and non turbos. My point was Ma has not compared well to his team mates in his outings, so an already slow car is going to be driven even slower – he’d be going at GP2 pace in an F1 race.
Car, not Care!!!!!!!
Not sure if I’d want to be in the Ma Fan Club…
Wǒ bù zhīdào – Even I don’t know
I was uneasy about NK but he has been stellar considering the car he has, and he been good as gold in avoiding come tos [ok Sebbo, Button, and now Rosberg: none of which were his fault]. Plus he’s come out of the tunnel in Monaco every time, in one piece and no prob.
HRT should be content to keep him. FIA need to take a firmer line, I believe, with pay drivers
I guess if NK can convince Tata to come up with further decent sponsorship then HRT would come around to your point of view.
Just on the subject of Tata, I find it incredible that they have this exclusive agreement with F1 featuring their world class communications infrastructure yet their most visible presence seems to be a logo on the side of a couple of the slowest F1 cars that really only get any exposure when they’re spinning off track.
2 podiums in Spanish Formula 3…An immensely better driver than I ever will be I’m sure, but none the less, shame that pay drivers have taken hold so much.
Joe,
Any idea on who the new Team Lead is a Caterham from your contacts?
I understand that Tony Fernandes told the automotive press in Paris that there will be a new team principal for Caterham F1. I was not there when he said but my feeling is that there are some crossed wires and that he is actually referring to the recently-hired Cyril Abiteboul, rather than a new uber-boss. Fernandes and group CEO Riad Asmat have got too many things to do to be present at every race, which is what a team principal needs to be. Abiteboul is doing two jobs at the moment and will not join Caterham fulltime until January 1, so I guess that is who they are talking about. It makes sense to have an arrangement more like that of McLaren/Martin Whitmarsh, Red Bull/Christian Horner, Ferrari/Stefano Domenicali and Gerard Lopez/Eric Boullier, where the owner is not the team principal. If there is someone else in addition to that then I don’t know about it.
one of Force India’s many downfalls. Bob Fernley seems to do a good job. Maybe even bring back EJ!
If an HRT takes out a Ferrari next year, all headlines will read “Ma ma mia!”
Hi Joe,,
Who do you think will be providing engines for HRT in 2014?
Cosworth
FIA were wrong to hand out a superlicence to Ma and now predictably the mess just gets worse
Why?
I wonder if this is just a desperate play for money from an emerging market or whether it is actually supported by real sponsorship money? Does Ma have an existing Chinese sponsor that would step up to F1 levels of funding? The Chinese investors that I meet are all keeping their money in their pockets until the leadership transition is bedded down. No one wants to be seen throwing money around publicly because then they’re politely asked where they got it from…
The Indian experiment with Kartha and Karun has shown that the funding pool in emerging markets is shallow. Even Force India, which had some reasonable performances, has been largely been funded by its principals rather than a flood of patriotic money.
“Even Force India, which had some reasonable performances, has been largely been funded by its principals rather than a flood of patriotic money.”
A lots of it has to do with the owner Vijay Mallya making conscious decision to promote his own brands on the car and not wanting to share the real estate on the car with other Indian Brands ( and limelight in Indian media with other Indian Drivers).
Given the fact that both Karthikeyan and Karun have had loyal sponsors throughout their racing career, it was quite possible to have a Tata, MRF or JKTyre funding to the team, but its just that the big ego of Mr. Mallya chose to take a different route and now what he has is a shell company in form of Sahara group with no real investment in real products
You do not perhaps think that other Indian brands did not want to be associated with Mallya? That is, after all, another possible conclusion.
This is ridiculous.
Hi Joe,
To sign with a team such as HRT + not being Bruno Senna/having a famous uncle, would it be considered a good move? Or is it more having something is better than nothing…
The thing is,,will we see an increase in costs in 2014?How will the smaller teams be able to cope with that if it ends up scaling up?
Does Cosworth want other companies to buy into them or perhaps some other sort of partnership?To cover for just two teams is very expensive,specially if the costs do shoot up..