New HRT boss Luis Pérez-Sala has warned the public via Autosport.com, that the reconfiguration of his outfit to a more spanish-like team may defer the expectations.
"The task ahead of us, with the design of the car and change of headquarters, is huge," he said, talking about moving his headquarters from Colin Kolles’ (HRT’s former team principal) Germany base to a new Spain location in Valencia, whilst carrying the development work of the 2012 car in Munich.
"Formula 1 is very complicated and implies a lot of preparation work, so, in this respect, HRT is a little bit behind other teams," admitted Pérez-Sala.
When the Campos project went under at the last minute in 2010 with financial problems, HRT was rescued by Kolles. Of course it meant giving up, in the short term, on the project of having a purely spanish team on the Formula One grid, for the survival of the dream.
Now that HRT has been bought back by spanish interests, and the likes of Thesan Capital, it is going through a reorientation process aimed to bring the project back to its roots. The enrolment of a spanish driver and of a spanish team principal are steps that have already been taken.
"We will feel the effects of this transformation the team is going through and will have to pay for it at the start of the season. We're not going to be at the same level as when we finished this past season, where the same team had been running for two years, but we're aware of that."
"We're taking a step back so that we can take two forward."
"The task ahead of us, with the design of the car and change of headquarters, is huge," he said, talking about moving his headquarters from Colin Kolles’ (HRT’s former team principal) Germany base to a new Spain location in Valencia, whilst carrying the development work of the 2012 car in Munich.
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| HRT should look very different, at least from the inside in 2012 (Photo: Hispania Racing Team F1) |
"Formula 1 is very complicated and implies a lot of preparation work, so, in this respect, HRT is a little bit behind other teams," admitted Pérez-Sala.
When the Campos project went under at the last minute in 2010 with financial problems, HRT was rescued by Kolles. Of course it meant giving up, in the short term, on the project of having a purely spanish team on the Formula One grid, for the survival of the dream.
Now that HRT has been bought back by spanish interests, and the likes of Thesan Capital, it is going through a reorientation process aimed to bring the project back to its roots. The enrolment of a spanish driver and of a spanish team principal are steps that have already been taken.
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| Pérez-Sala (left): "Bye bye Colin!" (Photo: HRT F1 Team) |
"We will feel the effects of this transformation the team is going through and will have to pay for it at the start of the season. We're not going to be at the same level as when we finished this past season, where the same team had been running for two years, but we're aware of that."
"We're taking a step back so that we can take two forward."