HRT- just give it up?

[Henry Fiddleton]

Sorry if this comes accross harsh but, reading up on the release of their car.

It's due out on the last test, 10 days before the season begins. If they find out that the car has issues, how on earth do they intend to fix them?

I think MB mentioned it last season, what is the point?

HF

[SamHH]

What's the point for the owners of the team, or what's the point for the sport in general? I'd rather they were competing than not; more teams adds to the spectacle.

Don't you want them to be racing?

[BelperJim]

What are your view on Williams, as they started out life in F1 in a similar fashion I believe.

[Life Saab Itch]

BelperJim said:

What are your view on Williams, as they started out life in F1 in a similar fashion I believe.

And Lotus.

Even Ferrari if you consider that Enzo ran cars that other companies had designed and built...

Let them race. It's more to look at on a sunday.

[williamp]

Agreed. There can only be one winner of a race. Sould the other 23 cars give up on the penultimate lap as whats the point??

they are racing. Maybe not at th front, but they will have desires to, and besides they will be racing with the other cars.

[Streps]

personally i'm giving them another season

But the whole point for bottom of the grid teams is to nurture talent
in young drivers
Eddie jordan said this during last years formula one coverage.

Hispania are just hiring the driver who has the biggest wallet

So you have new drivers like Karun Chandhok being replaced by
old drivers like Sakon Yamamoto and Christian Klien.

Now Narain Karthikeyan is back.

[Munter]

So long as the car meets the rules, and they pay their cash, they should be allowed to race.

Someone has to be at the back of the grid, or we'd have no grid at all.

Look at Minardi/Torro Rosso. People used to wonder why Minardi turned up, and now you wouldn't think of suggesting Torro Rosso should quit.

[bishbash]

Technically they 'beat' Virgin last year, yet people don't seem to slag them off half as much.

[Henry Fiddleton]

I do agree with everyone has to start some where,and Lotus/Virgin have a done proper job.

With the 107% rule, are HRT even going to make it in to the race?

Also in the times when Williams et al started off, F1 was a different world- I dont buy that concept anymore.

I remember watching a documentry on Williams, and even in (i think!) 1982 they had a 10 million pound budget- not sure how much that is in todays money but its a lot.

I am all for having more teams, but surely HRT are bringing very little to the table- depite F1 being a priveledged club to be part of.

[llewop]

Henry Fiddleton said:

With the 107% rule, are HRT even going to make it in to the race?

last year they were (mostly) within that - but with their car being so late (again...) and patently short of sponsors, you can't really see them gaining on the rest of the field... but time will tell.

[Forbes82]

Life Saab Itch said:

And Lotus.

Not really, in fact not at all, Lotuses first f1 cars (16 and 18) were actually rather quick, scored points, and in the case of the 18, won and was innovative.

Colin had had motorsport success long before entering formula one and his early cars showed alot more promise and potential than HRT, with alot of drive and ambition too. HRT on the other hand went straight to F1 with no motorsport background, and appear to have a strategy of design/development/driver choice/management that will likely never see them even score a point.

I enjoy seeing cars race, it doesn't bother me much if HRT are or are not there, i don't see them as 'racers' at all. I hope they prove me wrong, push into the pack and actually race against someone, but i doubt they will. Last year even Lotus and virgin provided us with some worthwhile watching, where as for me HRT gave us nothing, and will probably fall further behind now.

I don't see the comparison between lotus entry to F1 and HRT.

[pw75]

Forbes82 said:

Not really, in fact not at all, Lotuses first f1 cars (16 and 18) were actually rather quick, scored points, and in the case of the 18, won and was innovative.

Colin had had motorsport success long before entering formula one and his early cars showed alot more promise and potential than HRT, with alot of drive and ambition too. HRT on the other hand went straight to F1 with no motorsport background, and appear to have a strategy of design/development/driver choice/management that will likely never see them even score a point.

I enjoy seeing cars race, it doesn't bother me much if HRT are or are not there, i don't see them as 'racers' at all. I hope they prove me wrong, push into the pack and actually race against someone, but i doubt they will. Last year even Lotus and virgin provided us with some worthwhile watching, where as for me HRT gave us nothing, and will probably fall further behind now.

I don't see the comparison between lotus entry to F1 and HRT.

spot on. Granted everything will always distil down to money/and or politics which most of the time is the same thing anyway, money. For many years it was seen that the best drivers got a seat, now its very much you can be there within reason based on the size of your wallet...which means its a few levels above btcc. Not the pinnacle of motorsport I like to watch. Good to see that some teams like force india are putting talented drivers in...but again I fear that distils down to mercedes engine supply and politics......but at least he is talented and has got a seat, rather than HRT which are purely running it for financial gain with no real pretence of moving forwards...or non I have been party to seeing. Didn't even brundle say he didn't get it...or rather he did but probably didn't like what it represented.

[rallycross]

I'd like to see a full grid so I hope they make it within the 107% rule but somehow I doubt it - an underfunded team with a car barely better than GP2 spec with a driver more like GP3 spec with the team effectively run by a 3rd party out to make their money by running the team. What is in it for a sponsor? The tv coverage tends only to show them being lapped once, by the time they have been lapped 3 or 4 times they dont show it anymore.

[davepoth]

They're doing better this year, remember they didn't even make a test last season.

[norman156]

davepoth said:

They're doing better this year, remember they didn't even make a test last season.

Indeed, as I remember only one car made it out for a handful of laps in Bahrain free practice and Chandhock didn't even get a turn of the wheel until qualifying. So if they do make it for the final test session, it'll be a marked improvement on last year's shambles...

[Stupidlikeafox]

For me, they have this season to at least look like a semblance of an F1 team. If they are still miles behind Virgin and Lotus at the end of the season, there is really no point them being there. Lotus seem to be making genuine progress this year, which hopefully will enable them to run with Toro Rosso and Sauber, the jury is still out with Virgin (having produced a near identical car to 2010) but at least the car exists and has drivers!

I gave them the benefit of the doubt last year, what with last minute takeover bids etc. This year, they have had a full off season to get prepped, sort drivers, sponsors etc out. I know it's not easy, but they have literally 1 sponsor (Tata) and 1 driver. If they don't pull themselves together soon, and end up like last season's pathetic effort, they are a waste of 2 grid slots, and someone else should have a go.

[woof]

The truth is that they don't have the money to go testing and getting paid by Pirelli to do some promo work and run the car around for free is there only option for testing at the moment !

[Stupidlikeafox]

woof said:

The truth is that they don't have the money to go testing and getting paid by Pirelli to do some promo work and run the car around for free is there only option for testing at the moment !

Even the Pirelli testing will just be pootling around for the media/cameras, not exactly a proper test!

[JMC1]

This just displays the ridiculous elite attitude of Bernie and the FIA. Back in the 70's and 80's the smaller teams would buy a one year old Mclaren, or Lotus or Williams or March great news for the small teams to come into F1 very often with a one car team on a tight budget. Some times these small teams were dreadful and some times they sprung some surprises nicking the occasional points finish.

Surely in these tough economic times the big teams would love to sell last years cars modified for new rules to new teams. These new teams would very rarely trouble the front teams and it would be an extra stream of funds from the sale of the cars and then the spare parts. If you want to add a little bit of the elite attitude you could insist that a team is only allowed to purchase customer cars for two seasons before they would have to build their own.

I am sure that customer cars would have been more competitive last year than all of the new teams and would therefore be more interesting for the fans. Sorry did I say good for the fans, silly me that is not a consideration any more is it.

[egomeister]

davepoth said:

They're doing better this year, remember they didn't even make a test last season.

They've still got plenty of time to not make it to any of the tests with the 2011 car! I don't think we'll see it before the first race.