HRT Sold ?

[Crafty_]

Reading rumours of a sale, or part sale of HRT to Nomura for 24m EUR, last week there were rumours that Kolles was going to a management position in Williams (since denied by Williams). Some sort of announcement tomorrow on the buyout apparently.

Wondering if this might signify a Japanese manufacturer coming back - we've a couple of years to go but 2014 is the obvious time for a manufacturer to come back, Honda turbo V6s again ? Maybe Toyota will have another go ?

[mullerrice18]

Surely if it was a manufacturer (sp?) they would just be after the grid slot and nothing else??

[Crafty_]

mullerrice18 said:

Surely if it was a manufacturer (sp?) they would just be after the grid slot and nothing else??

Yeah and what over that do HRT have ? They don't have any premises (they use Kolles DTM base in Germany, Williams wind tunnel and a few other 3rd parties).
Given that there are no slots free, you've got no choice but to buy an existing team.

[davepoth]

Crafty_ said:

mullerrice18 said:

Surely if it was a manufacturer (sp?) they would just be after the grid slot and nothing else??

Yeah and what over that do HRT have ? They don't have any premises (they use Kolles DTM base in Germany, Williams wind tunnel and a few other 3rd parties).
Given that there are no slots free, you've got no choice but to buy an existing team.

But now is a good time to start pumping the cash in - they can pootle round for two years getting everything ready for the new rules (building up a good design and engineering team, getting an autoclave, all that stuff), and then come out with a really decent car when the new rules come in.

[woof]

Seems like the bank that lent the Carabante to run the team.
Plenty of talk of HRT running on empty - so is it a buy out or a bankruptcy

The HRT Formula 1 team is reported to have been sold to Japan’s merchant bank Nomura by the Banco Popular, which controls the shares of the operation, which were pledged by Jose Ramon Carabante when he borrowed the money to run the team.


http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/hrt-sold...

[Marc W]

Crafty_ said:

Reading rumours of a sale, or part sale of HRT to Nomura for 24m EUR, last week there were rumours that Kolles was going to a management position in Williams (since denied by Williams). Some sort of announcement tomorrow on the buyout apparently.

Wondering if this might signify a Japanese manufacturer coming back - we've a couple of years to go but 2014 is the obvious time for a manufacturer to come back, Honda turbo V6s again ? Maybe Toyota will have another go ?

I'd be very suprised if it was Toyota, seeing as they've not long left and the same for Honda. With their economic troubes caused by the earthquake and Tsunami, I can't see them making a U turn from their last pullouts that quickly.

[Nick3point2]

Crafty_ said:

mullerrice18 said:

Surely if it was a manufacturer (sp?) they would just be after the grid slot and nothing else??

Yeah and what over that do HRT have ? They don't have any premises (they use Kolles DTM base in Germany, Williams wind tunnel and a few other 3rd parties).
Given that there are no slots free, you've got no choice but to buy an existing team.

they don't even have a rented design office: they designed their car using skype and file sharing sites!

[Crafty_]

so its a Spanish investment company who are backed by Nomura that have bought it. going to sink a fair bit of cash in to it and are expecting 25% ROI in 7 years.
Personnel to stay as-is for now, but new owners will talk control eventually.

Edited by Crafty_ on Monday 4th July 16:59

[Rude-boy]

Marc W said:

I'd be very suprised if it was Toyota, seeing as they've not long left and the same for Honda. With their economic troubes caused by the earthquake and Tsunami, I can't see them making a U turn from their last pullouts that quickly.

But they do have a site ready to run an F1 team from just down the road and a reputation they need to rebuild.