Italian web site 422race.com recently talked to Formula 1 driver Vitantonio Liuzzi about his future in Grand Prix racing with HRT.
Liuzzi said he's still linked to HRT: “I’m still an HRT driver. At the moment everything is very vague (in regards to my future with HRT). The main problem is that the team have no budget, so they are evaluating the way to get the money to have two drivers. Now I'm still tied to HRT, because I have a deal for two more years, but everything is still to be defined, because they are looking for sponsors. For sure, they would like to keep both me and Pedro (de la Rosa), but we are still on standby."
The Italian added that the change of ownership created new challenges.
“When I decided to sign for this team, there was a different ownership with Mr. Carabantes, who had different project than Thesan Capital, which is more of a nationalistic project,” said Liuzzi.
“Their project is a Spanish one, to get Spanish sponsors, which is changing the drivers' management as well. I'm not judging, I'm very realistic: I understand the situation inside the team and at the moment we're trying to solve the situation as soon as possible, because the championship is close,” Liuzzi added.
Liuzzi is a former driver of the Scuderia Toro Rosso. So he knows very well what Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari have been through. But the Italian said Red Bull could do whatever they like to do about driver management.
"This is (Dietrich) Mateschitz' toy and (Dr Helmut) Marko is managing it. Everybody manages their business how they want. You can criticize it or not, but in the end they invest a lot of money on this programme, so they do what they want. Lately, it's not clear how they choose their drivers, because the ones that do good results are sacked. However, one can manage his toy as he wants,” Liuzzi declared.
Liuzzi said he's still linked to HRT: “I’m still an HRT driver. At the moment everything is very vague (in regards to my future with HRT). The main problem is that the team have no budget, so they are evaluating the way to get the money to have two drivers. Now I'm still tied to HRT, because I have a deal for two more years, but everything is still to be defined, because they are looking for sponsors. For sure, they would like to keep both me and Pedro (de la Rosa), but we are still on standby."
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| Photo: WRi2 |
The Italian added that the change of ownership created new challenges.
“When I decided to sign for this team, there was a different ownership with Mr. Carabantes, who had different project than Thesan Capital, which is more of a nationalistic project,” said Liuzzi.
“Their project is a Spanish one, to get Spanish sponsors, which is changing the drivers' management as well. I'm not judging, I'm very realistic: I understand the situation inside the team and at the moment we're trying to solve the situation as soon as possible, because the championship is close,” Liuzzi added.
Liuzzi is a former driver of the Scuderia Toro Rosso. So he knows very well what Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari have been through. But the Italian said Red Bull could do whatever they like to do about driver management.
"This is (Dietrich) Mateschitz' toy and (Dr Helmut) Marko is managing it. Everybody manages their business how they want. You can criticize it or not, but in the end they invest a lot of money on this programme, so they do what they want. Lately, it's not clear how they choose their drivers, because the ones that do good results are sacked. However, one can manage his toy as he wants,” Liuzzi declared.