cbbcisace wrote:Petroltorque wrote:I would love to know what is actually going on at HRT's Madrid Headquarters? As someone stated earlier; HRT have an F1 compliant car but not an F1 standard car, neither in design or build quality. If one accepts the argument that they foregoed KERS to concentrate on aero, why haven't they developped the big gain aero areas like front wing and downwash exhaust.
One hopes that next year's car will indeed be a clean sheet design incorporating these concepts but I fear it will be another year of compromise with externally commissioned design and late agreement on power train.
Because they have a small budget, the smallest in F1, which they have had to spend a lot of it getting everything they needed to compete this year, don't forget Kolles took nearly all the staff away when he was let go and they have only just replaced them, plus I believe they don't trust what Holzer produced for them in the first place, so why spend money on it this year, when they are going to finish 12th anyway.
Kolles took most of the staff indeed, they had 185 staff this time last year and starting this year they had arround 80-85 in order to get the car to testing and the first fly aways. Also Kolles took away with him about 70% of the tools and trackside resource as well, all that was left was the garrage shells and their fly away boxes and a handful of tools for each car. He also left all 3 of the F111 chassis and he kept the 2 F110 and the F110+ chassis for his own factory as settlement.
HRT have also had to get their HQ in Madrid fully equiped and also get the team tooled up as well, they spent €80,000 on 60 tyre warmers, they spent a reported €2.3m om getting the correct tools to work with and also a futher €6m on track side IT infrustructure as well as each car has a €100K rack to get it to run and there is a €1m master rack at each event as well. HRT have spent alot on the infrustructure and resource to get the team into a posistion to get into the correct place in years to come. They are taking about €6m to each GP and they only have a A Rig and a B Rig, unlike even Marussia and Caterham who both have a C Rig as well, HRT are slightly more contrived with IT gear and tools, as their budget is so much smaller.
Also they have spent a simmilar ammount of resource in getting their HQ tooled up correctly with the correct IT equiptment as well. They have spent arround €15m getting their Caja Majica HQ in Madrid into a sufficent standard that they can even be called a team. Marussia last year spent €10m on their move to the old Ascari factori in Banbury, Caterham have spent a estimated €23m moving from Hingham to Leafeald as well.
Id recon that HRT are building themselvs into a team this year, they have got a estimated 180 staff and a correctly tooled and infrustructure in place at their HQ now. Rumor has it that they are going to have a Williams supplied simulator in place at their HQ for next Febuary, and will also have the facility to manufacture small to medium composite parts for the F113 next year as well.
As for Holzer, they produced a F1 complient but sub standard car, however they have much less in unit cost per chassis than Carbotech for instance, you are talking about €200,000 a chassis i am led to belive. However carbotech are being brought back in to produce the F113 chassis. The F113 chassis files are with Carbotech as HRT want to get to the first test next year, and with most chassis taking 16 weeks to produce, HRT have submitted early this year as there isnt that much in terms of regulation change, infact there is zero change form this year to next. Many teams are choosing to test for the rest of the season, but HRT are limping the F112 to the end in Brazil and then taking a fresh sheet for 2013, as they need a new car and a new approach for 2013, whitch is what they are doing.
What HRT need is a driver that can take advantage of what PdlR is giving them in terms of set up as well, as Karthekeyn has just not done it all year again, however the €16m he has brought this year has been invested wisely by the team. However i think that Karthekeyn will end his F1 journey at the Indian GP as HRT are eger to try our Dani Clos for 2013, however they keep getting Sennas name put toward them for 2013 as well. Both of them could take advantage of the PdlR set up quite easily! And KERS for 2013 is a must for them, its 30Kg extra weight that the overweight F112 could not take, but the F113 needs it as its 30Kg extra for a half second a lap instant increase in pace.
