After the team’s new car sat out the entire pre-season test period, owner Jose Ramon Carabante insists there is no risk that HRT will also miss the 2011 season opener in less than two weeks.

“It is certain that we will be in Australia and race there,” Carabante is quoted as saying by El Pais newspaper.

The F111 was finally launched in the Barcelona pitlane late last week but the team said it could not be tested due to components being held up in customs.

Carabante admits that Hispania’s preparation for its second formula one season was not ideal.

“Maybe we will not finish the first race, we’ll see, but the car will develop from here with the clear aim of fighting with and beating the other two teams that started last year,” he added, referring to Virgin and Lotus.

HRT has said the F111 is entirely new, but expert observers pointed out striking similarities with the back-of-the-grid Dallara car of 2010.

“We are relying on last year’s chassis,” admitted chief engineer Toni Cuquerella, “but 95 per cent of the car is new.

“We have a Cosworth engine with the latest specification and we have adapted the chassis for the new gearbox and hydraulics supplied to us by Williams.

“The collaboration with them (Williams) has allowed us to make a technological step of three years. It is clear that the car is much better than last year’s,” he added.

El Pais said HRT’s 2011 budget is EUR 45 million, to potentially be covered by some as yet unsigned sponsors.

“We are negotiating with several sponsors,” insists Carabante, who is reportedly willing to make up the shortfall if the budget is not finally completed.

Narain Karthikeyan has vowed to “catch up” with formula one after spending much of 2010 racing a NASCAR Truck in America.
The newly-signed HRT driver revealed on Twitter that among his first jobs in preparation for 2011 is to buy the 2010 F1 Season Review on DVD.

“Missed loads of races while racing in the US, need to catch up!” said the Indian, who turns 34 this week.

Karthikeyan has not raced in F1 since his debut season in 2005, and quotes attributed to him in the Deccan Herald newspaper suggest that he is struggling even with the very short history of his new employer.

When asked if he expects HRT to have a better season this year than in 2010, Karthikeyan answered: “The car that they had last year was really bad in terms of the engine they used.”

HRT used the Cosworth engine in 2010 and intend to stay with the Northamptonshire marque this year.

“They (HRT) have a lot of promising plans drawn out for the 2011 season and I’m hoping that it all materialises,” added Karthikeyan.

Another problem for Karthikeyan might be his physical condition, given that he revealed that only “10 days ago” he “almost signed up” for another NASCAR Truck season.

Team boss Kolles admitted that when he was in charge at Jordan in 2005, Karthikeyan’s “biggest negative point” was his fitness.

“But his physical fitness during the Le Mans races, which are very long, was very good,” added the HRT chief.

Karthikeyan admitted recently that leaving NASCAR for a seat with a small team in F1 was a “big risk”.

“In 10 months, I will know if it was the right or wrong decision,” he told the Times of India on Monday.

Narain Karthikeyan has confirmed reports that HRT will not race an entirely new car in 2011.
The struggling Spanish team with its car designer Dallara in 2010, and a new partnership for this year with Toyota Motorsport GmbH also foundered.

It recently emerged that HRT would begin pre-season testing at Valencia next month with the 2010 car, but a report by the Indian news agency PTI claimed that an “upgraded version” of the F110 will in fact contest the 2011 season.

“They (HRT) will participate with an upgraded version of their 2010 chassis, mated to the Cosworth engine, and a gearbox sourced from the Williams team,” 2011 driver Karthikeyan is quoted on Tuesday by sport360.com.

HRT owner Jose Ramon Carabante is expecting the Spanish team to have a better season in 2011.

The Dallara-built F110 was the slowest car in formula one this year, but Hispania has inked an agreement to have its next car equipped with a Williams gearbox.

However, an agreement with 2011 car supplier Toyota recently fell through, raising doubts about the likely competitiveness of the team next season.

But Carabante told Radio Marca in Spanish that it is Geoff Willis who has designed the 2011 HRT “and the car he has designed will give us many joys”.

“The car is being made partly in Germany and partly in England and it will be ready.

“We have been working on it for some time and it will be in Bahrain for sure. This year was much more difficult. This time we will be in the winter tests,” added Carabante.

He said HRT’s plans for its 2011 car are similar to Force India and Toro Rosso’s; teams who “work with several suppliers”.

A problem with the Toyota plan, he revealed, was that the Cosworth engine did not work with the Toyota chassis, which has its own power plant.

“The Cosworth did not fit in the Toyota and we couldn’t break the agreement with Cosworth because the clause was that they had to have been one of the least reliable, and they were not,” he explained.

On the financial front, Carabante said many sponsors do not appreciate the full value of formula one.

“In F1 these days there is no need to spend 5 or 10 million,” he said. “You can come in with 1 million or 500,000 euros.”

He lamented that “You go to large companies in this country and tell them that with their support you can have the car of Toyota, the use of their facilities and be in the top eight from time to time but they don’t support you.

“We have a Spanish team which would be even more Spanish with a driver like Pedro de la Rosa, but the companies did not come in.”

But he revealed that “soon we will announce a major sponsor because negotiations are well advanced. It is one of the five most important companies in Spain,” said Carabante.

HRT’s aim for 2011 is “to consolidate and be a step further ahead than this year. It is a long term project and we will see if in two or three years we are established, as was the initial idea”.

On the driver front, Carabante said talks are ongoing with “five or six” candidates but said announcements are not scheduled until the new year.

Whether a Spaniard is among them, he answered: “Maybe.”

The new Spanish team HRT will use a gearbox supplied by Williams in 2011, it was confirmed on Tuesday.

According to the famous Grove-based team, the deal will be in place “for the lifecycle of the current Cosworth engine technology”, which presumably means until F1′s regulations change at the end of 2012.

“This is a logical partnership given Williams and Hispania’s mutual relationship with Cosworth,” said Williams chief executive Alex Burns.

Three teams will continue to be powered by Cosworth engines in 2011, the independent British company has announced.

At Monza, an agreement “in principle” was reached between the Northampton based marque and Lotus to end their current engine deal.

That termination has now been signed, paving the way for Lotus to switch to Renault power for 2011 and 2012.

“Cosworth’s support for Lotus Racing will cease at midnight on 30 November 2010,” confirmed Cosworth.

It said Lotus wanted to end the deal “to solve reliability and performance issues unrelated to the Cosworth engine”.

The Williams, Virgin and HRT teams will continue to use Cosworth engines next year, a media statement issued by Cosworth confirmed.

It is expected a formal announcement of Lotus’ Renault deal will be made next week.

“Three announcements out next week,” team boss Tony Fernandes wrote on Twitter, “which will show the strength of what we are building.”

The other announcements are probably the extension of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli’s contracts, and possibly an extended deal with sponsor Dell.

It is also clear that next year’s Lotus will once again be painted green and yellow, despite the legal spat with carmaker Group Lotus.

“I would say that that’s the only thing I can confirm 100 per cent,” Fernandes said.

One of Jacques Villeneuve’s potential team investors is reportedly the son of the Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi.

37-year-old Al-Saadi al-Gaddafi, known as a businessman and professional football player, is backing Villeneuve and Italian racing team Durango’s bid for the 13th place on the 2011 grid, according to Italiaracing.

It is also claimed that Russian and Italian businessmen are investing in the F1 foray, while Luca Filippi and Davide Valsecci are in the running to be the 1997 world champion’s teammate.

Gaddafi Jr is closely linked with the state-owned Libyan oil refining company Tamoil, former shirt sponsor of the Italian football club Juventus.

Italiaracing.net also said that if hopeful outfit Stefan GP wins the 13th team entry, the Serbian car would be powered by a Cosworth engine.

After separation from HRT Dallara driven the development of their own design team is continuing. Under the leadership of the new technical adviser of the team, Geoff Willis, will soon begin work on next year’s car. “The team would like to get there, to hold its own destiny in hand,” Willis said in an interview with ‘MotorsportTotal’.

“We are currently putting together a small technical group,” said Willis on. This also forces in Britain would be committed. “There are a few people, I want to buy that are there at short notice.” Basically, it was but the goal of the team, its basic long-term rearing in the Hispanic space. In the short term but we must also avoid even the UK.
“In the current Formula 1 world, it is obviously a little easier to carry out such a program in the UK because there is now even a larger group of people living and working,” says Willis. By setting the rules whereby the number of employees per team will be limited further in the future, are especially available in the UK market appropriate staff.

The fixed strain on employees but would rather remain within manageable limits. “In terms of design, so of course we want to do everything themselves in the long term. In the short term but it does not matter at first, if many people are employed, or whether one takes freelancers under contract.”
When the program will definitely start, is still not fixed. “The decisions as to look like the design strategy of the team for 2011 but needs to be made soon,” said Willis. “I’m probably a little uneasy if you have not ordered until the end of July. Ideally, I would like to get on with an aero program, but I think we still have a few weeks time.”

“We are in the fortunate position that we will not build one way or our own gear. The gearbox and the engine is provided by third parties. Coupled with the fact that we have the rules for the coming year in relation to the size of fuel tanks and know the weight, we do not have to play some games in the wind tunnel. This saves us some time so start. If we were to design and build our own gear and we had to have in April. “This season is taking HRT a Cosworth engine and an Xtrac gearbox back.
While striving so in terms of design and development for more personal responsibility, the manufacturing of the parts will continue to accepted by third parties. “For teams of our size, it becomes more and more the norm to leave the actual production done outside the home,” said Willis. In the past we have tried to manufacture as much yourself as you could meet only as certain quality standards.

Meanwhile, it highlighted a considerable number of reliable formula-one suppliers, including in Austria, Germany, England, and Italy. “Now we can say pretty directly, you can do everything external. At least that is certainly our model. But we would certainly not give the complete program to third parties. One way or HRT will have in many ways, the technical control.”

Adam Parr is not ruling out a change of engine supplier for Williams.

Amid rumours both Williams and Lotus could each be eyeing a supply of Renault V8s in 2011, Cosworth’s Mark Gallagher has insisted both teams are under contract for three years.

Parr, Williams’ chief executive, likened a F1 team’s relationship with its key suppliers to a marriage.

“You do have rows with your wife, but you know you have got the common interest and I still think that is the case,” Parr, referring to Williams’ recent qualms about the driveability and degradation of the Cosworth engine this year, is quoted by GP Week.

“But we have no plans to change engine partner, and we have no desire to change engine partner,” he continued.

“I just don’t want to rule out the possibility of something happening because that would be a stupid thing to do,” he added.

(GMM)

Jun.11 (GMM)  Virgin on Friday took over from HRT as the slowest team in formula one.

For the first time in 2010, the new Spanish team was clearly faster than the Virgins as the field practiced for the Canadian grand prix.

Virgin, one of F1′s three new outfits this year, travelled to North America with a special low-downforce bodywork package for the unique Circuit Gilles Villeneuve layout.

“We have a nice Montreal aero package which consists of new aero parts all over the car, specifically for this track,” technical director Nick Wirth said earlier this week.

But Timo Glock trailed the pace of the leading new-team Lotus by a full second in the morning, before the gap blew out even further in the afternoon as both he and teammate Lucas di Grassi brought up the rear of the timesheets.

“I think we were a bit optimistic with our package for here,” said German Glock.

Virgin, however, is confident of making a step forward in Canada, as the VR-01 cars were fitted with the less competitive Turkey-spec Cosworth engines on Friday.

From the switch to Williams, veteran Rubens Barrichello had promised to secure more. Equipped with Cosworth engines, Williams effort to pass in midfield. Every now and then scratching at the points, it was enough to striking results so far not. In Montreal, but will now come a big step, to help, a new front wing on the FW32.

“I hope it is a step forward,” said Barrichello. “We have a few new things here, we have to see how this pays off on the track.” Williams had a lot to catch up with the latest major update for the port of Valencia is to be restored.
“The reason why we in Istanbul were not so good is that others have been better – but not us,” said the Brazilian. “We had new parts of it, but made no progress. We have to see how it works this weekend.”

Team-mate Nico Hulkenberg is however more on the Valencia-update that Williams should bring in the top 10. “Each of the next race will be difficult,” he said. “This year is a general problem when the car is too slow at this time. The other develop even further. I’m at the beginning of my Formula 1 career and I know that in difficult times can learn a lot.”

Cosworth is not in Rubens Barrichello or Lucas di Grassi’s good books at the scene of the Turkish grand prix.

Williams’ Rubens Barrichello, just fifteenth on the grid at Istanbul Park, said the British team is “suffering” from a lack of power.

“The engine that we brought did not work,” he is quoted by Brazil’s Globo.  “The straightline speed is not good.”

Lucas di Grassi is also unhappy, having been outqualified by Bruno Senna of the struggling HRT team.

“My lap was good,” said the rookie, who is finally at the wheel of Virgin’s updated VR-01 car this weekend.

“The car was good in the corners, but the engine was not working on the straights or in acceleration.”

Di Grassi will have a fresh engine fitted for Sunday’s race.

(GMM)

Williams has emerged as a third possible recipient of Renault engines for the 2011 season.

After the French marque said it has the capacity to add more teams to its current F1 roster, it was rumoured that the hopeful newcomers ART could be eyeing Renault power.

Reports then emerged that the new Cosworth-powered Lotus team might be contemplating a change of engine supplier.

Now, Italy’s Autosprint reports that Williams – openly not entirely happy with its current Cosworth engines – is already in talks with Renault.

There may also be a link between the Williams/Renault talks, and rumours that Renault’s former long-time engineering director Pat Symonds could soon be a consultant to the design of Williams’ forthcoming FW33 car.

Renault currently supplies the team that bears its name, as well as the dominant Red Bull Racing, and Renault’s head of engine operations Remi Taffin said: “We still do not know how it will be in 2011.

“But we do know that we have the ability to assist more than two teams.”

(GMM)

The team’s new reserve and test driver is quoted by motorline.cc as confirming that his contract is for the entire 2010 season.

Despite contesting 48 grands prix dating back to 2004 and spending three full years as a test driver with works squads BMW and Honda, he received his new super license mere minutes before the 90-minute morning session began at Barcelona.

“The team has brought me in so I can give feedback to the engineers and compare the car with BMW and Honda,” said the 27-year-old, who was half a second quicker than race regular Bruno Senna.

“The car is obviously not up to formula one-standard,” added the Austrian.  “It has much too little downforce and the details are not as good as with the other cars.”

He explained that the Dallara-built car is “very difficult” to drive, insisting the Cosworth “engine is not the main problem”.

According to Brazil’s Globo, the Williams driver is expecting a step forward from the returning British supplier in Turkey later this month.

“We have some problems with the engine power,” Barrichello admitted. “We have not extracted the full potential of the car so far.

“We hope that Cosworth improve the power in the European season, but it’s still early. They’ve already changed a few things.

“There should be good developments for Istanbul and I’m already looking forward to that race,” he said.

(GMM)