Where does the HRT money come from?

[WhiteBlue]

It looks like HRT will be sponsored by TATA (via Karthikeyan) and Mercedes (via Liuzzi) but no other sources of money have been suggested for 2011. Nevertheless Colin Kolles claims that the new car designed by Geoff Willis will be on the test tracks by the last week of February.

They said they would try to make it to Bahrain last year and they made it. So I assume that Kolles knows what he is talking about. The sticky point IMO is the schedule behind such an operation. We know that the car is supposed to be assembled in Germany presumably at the Kolles facility in Ingolstadt and is developed in England. To make this happen HRT must have spend some serious money since August 2010 or the bits and pieces would not be coming forward now.

The question is who payed for all of this? Not TATA or Merc as they will only come up with cash as their drivers are receiving a seat fitting and start races.

It leaves us with the question how Kolles managed to put his hand on €30-40m cash to pay for the services that must have gone into the new car by now. Could another big account in the Ingolstadt area be paying the bills?

[Giblet]

Why would Mercedes pay to have Luizzi in a slower than slow team with a Cosworth engine, especially since he is contracted to Force India? I know FI uses Merc lumps in their cars, but they have a technology partnership with Mclaren.

What synergies are you seeing that I am missing?

[marcush.]

30-40m to design a car? I doubt Kolles would spend that sort of money ....as he dropped
Toyota not long ago.
Maybe the Toyota deal was really only to get access to all the information and their status insight into aero figures etc etc..Toyota wanted to sell so they had to open the door a bit more than you would like to ....and with Willis on board i ´d guess the situation quickly develops into:do we really need to buy this for THAT money?

I´d think HRT spent less than Virgin on the 2010 campaign(No aeroupgrades apart from the mirrors) So all they had basically went into creating the new car?

Maybe one ashould ask poor Chandhok ,Senna,Yamamoto where their money has gone...I bet all were promised to invest into the future ...and that was the 2011 car methinks..

[Tamburello]

Carabante?

I hear that the 2011 car will be nothing more than an upgraded 2010 car, so it shouldn't cost an arm and leg, relative to the other teams' spendings.

[segedunum]

It could be that di Resta is going to be in at Force India, but FI and Mercedes still have some form of contract with Liuzzi so they're going to move him on HRT.

It sounds silly, but then, these things quite often are.

[andrew]

The drivers will both be pay drivers I would not be surprised there is some driver switching going on at some point. That ought to bring in a wedge of cash.

[WhiteBlue]

30-40m to design a car? I doubt Kolles would spend that sort of money ....as he dropped
Toyota not long ago. ... I´d think HRT spent less than Virgin on the 2010 campaign. ...

And how much was that?

[ESPImperium]

Well, Yamamotto paied for his race seat race by race, whitch was $500,000 a race, he did 7 races so thats $3.5m. Chandhok paid a rumored $5m for his races, whitch were 10. Senna brought in $2.5m from Embratel and another $1m from other sponsors. Klien also got sponsorship as well seemingly, he brought $1m as well. All that is $12m, that saw them thrugh the season more or less.

Testing saw them get $600,000 a day from Maldanados days and $450,000 from Kral and Valsecchis day as well, this covered costs as well.

The only real source of income came from Bridgestone whitch paid $10m to each of the new teams as standard, most of this went out to supply firms, Dallara was paid the $4m for the 3 chassis built, $5m went to Cosworth for the engines and an additional $2 went to Xtrac for their gearboxes. This leaves a $1m loss, but if you go back to other sponsors, this saw the Spanish Region Of Murcia pay £2m for the season, whitch is a $1m profit all of a sudden.

The Carbonate family investes the rest of the money, as Hispania seemingly had a budget of arround $35m for the season.

Hispania were quoted $30m for the Toyota TF110 (3 chassis for the season and an aditional free upgrade) for 2011, but failed to pay, this is apparently a high figure as other firms like Fomtech for example (they are not manufacturing the Hispania 2011 car) can supply 3 chassis without a free upgrade for a rumored $12m. The Williams gearbox deal is rumored to be costing Hispania $4m for the year for the exact same gearbox that Williams will run in 2011 with suspension attached.

This would lead me to think that Hispania have already spent somewhere in the region of $17-20m on a 2011 chassis programme. TATA will be supplying Hispania with $12-15m for Karthikayns seat, Mercedes will be trying to buy Liuzzi a seat at Hispania for $5-7m, whitch will plug the gap, but unless Hispania have other sponsors on board i fail to see where the money is for them to maintain their grid slots in 2011.

One wonders if they have gone back to Dallara and bought the IP to the F110 and just simply re worked that design to be a little more effective with a new front wing and rear end. That should cost no more than $6-8m to my estimation.

The F110 wasnt a bad car in relation to the Lotus and Virgin, but it wasnt a good one either. Can it be made good, doubt it, can it be made fast enough to be within the 107% rule in Q1 for 2011, very posibly.

One thing they have said is that the F110 will make its entry into the season but may not make it to the end of the season, do the rules permit this?? thats what i want to know.

One wonders and waits to see what they emerge with for 2011.

[Giblet]

We got ourselves a new Minardi it appears. The Ringo Star of F1. "We're just 'appy to be 'ere".

[WhiteBlue]

This would lead me to think that Hispania have already spent somewhere in the region of $17-20m on a 2011 chassis programme. TATA will be supplying Hispania with $12-15m for Karthikayns seat, Mercedes will be trying to buy Liuzzi a seat at Hispania for $5-7m, whitch will plug the gap, but unless Hispania have other sponsors on board i fail to see where the money is for them to maintain their grid slots in 2011.

So you agree that Hispania not only seem to have a budget gap but also should have a cash flow problem to cover their past expenses. Who is paying the program?

[ESPImperium]

This would lead me to think that Hispania have already spent somewhere in the region of $17-20m on a 2011 chassis programme. TATA will be supplying Hispania with $12-15m for Karthikayns seat, Mercedes will be trying to buy Liuzzi a seat at Hispania for $5-7m, whitch will plug the gap, but unless Hispania have other sponsors on board i fail to see where the money is for them to maintain their grid slots in 2011.

So you agree that Hispania not only seem to have a budget gap but also should have a cash flow problem to cover their past expenses. Who is paying the program?

Essentially, i do agree. I just cannot see where the money is. Money is tighter than a ducks backside here that is for sure. I do think someone somewhere is paying for the programme, Im not sure if someone is paying for the team somewhere to 'keep the entry warm' so to speak. I think there is interest from Japanese boardrooms to come back to F1. We know Honda is wanting to return as a engine supplier, Toyota are now thinking it was a mistake they left Im thinking.

The only hope i have is that Hispania are gaining a new sponsor, they have got that new commercial director that once was head of Telephonica, could Telephonica be returning to Hispania for a similar deal that they had with Renault in the first Alonso era in 2004-2006 with a deal that was worth $8m?? Yes they would be back of the grid, but they would also be on the advertising mesh on the starting grid, and when the cars get lapped. Could they have courted Repsol into a similar deal as well, i hope so. This would be around $16m the team could not afford to turn down.

I hope they have a few sponsors on board for 2011, as this is the only way i can see them surviving. But the thing is that if they take the F110 into 2011, and keep it running as fast as they did in relation to the established runners, and follow a decent enough development path to stay within the 107% in P1. They really need to get a decent enough chassis developer to design and manufacture a chassis for 2012, and pay them in instalments at regular intervals to their financial needs.

I am looking forward to see how this team survives in the 2011 season, and to see what they bring to the grid this coming season.

[WhiteBlue]

There is also the chance that VW is keeping HRT alive to have an entry in 2013.

[czt]

Well, Yamamotto paied for his race seat race by race, whitch was $500,000 a race, he did 7 races so thats $3.5m. Chandhok paid a rumored $5m for his races, whitch were 10. Senna brought in $2.5m from Embratel and another $1m from other sponsors. Klien also got sponsorship as well seemingly, he brought $1m as well. All that is $12m, that saw them thrugh the season more or less.

Testing saw them get $600,000 a day from Maldanados days and $450,000 from Kral and Valsecchis day as well, this covered costs as well.

The only real source of income came from Bridgestone whitch paid $10m to each of the new teams as standard, most of this went out to supply firms, Dallara was paid the $4m for the 3 chassis built, $5m went to Cosworth for the engines and an additional $2 went to Xtrac for their gearboxes. This leaves a $1m loss, but if you go back to other sponsors, this saw the Spanish Region Of Murcia pay £2m for the season, whitch is a $1m profit all of a sudden.

The Carbonate family investes the rest of the money, as Hispania seemingly had a budget of arround $35m for the season.

Hispania were quoted $30m for the Toyota TF110 (3 chassis for the season and an aditional free upgrade) for 2011, but failed to pay, this is apparently a high figure as other firms like Fomtech for example (they are not manufacturing the Hispania 2011 car) can supply 3 chassis without a free upgrade for a rumored $12m. The Williams gearbox deal is rumored to be costing Hispania $4m for the year for the exact same gearbox that Williams will run in 2011 with suspension attached.

This would lead me to think that Hispania have already spent somewhere in the region of $17-20m on a 2011 chassis programme. TATA will be supplying Hispania with $12-15m for Karthikayns seat, Mercedes will be trying to buy Liuzzi a seat at Hispania for $5-7m, whitch will plug the gap, but unless Hispania have other sponsors on board i fail to see where the money is for them to maintain their grid slots in 2011.

One wonders if they have gone back to Dallara and bought the IP to the F110 and just simply re worked that design to be a little more effective with a new front wing and rear end. That should cost no more than $6-8m to my estimation.

The F110 wasnt a bad car in relation to the Lotus and Virgin, but it wasnt a good one either. Can it be made good, doubt it, can it be made fast enough to be within the 107% rule in Q1 for 2011, very posibly.

One thing they have said is that the F110 will make its entry into the season but may not make it to the end of the season, do the rules permit this?? thats what i want to know.

One wonders and waits to see what they emerge with for 2011.

Are you the HRT accountant?!

[ESPImperium]

Nope, but i do have a SportsPro magazine subscription and follow the business end of the sport well enough that the figures are roughly correct plus minus 15% for an errors sakes sakes.

[andrew]

There is also the chance that VW is keeping HRT alive to have an entry in 2013.

I thought that VW had ruled out any F1 activity.