“No one needs to come with a suitcase full of cash. It will be enough to have the guarantees of sponsors,” said Kolles, according to Germany's Bild newspaper. “We're not the only ones doing that,” he continued, insisting that such strategies are becoming common in F1 at the moment.
The report in the aforementioned media suggests that the second seat at HRT costs around EUR10 million, which actually represents about a third of the team's budget for the 2011 campaign.
The same sum per seat has been announced a few months back by the very owner of the squad, Spanish billionaire Jose Ramon Carabante, who told his home media that he would like to see Pedro de la Rosa in his team, but that won't happen unless he brings EUR10 million with him in sponsorship.
Christian Klien, Davide Valsecchi and Pedro de la Rosa are believed to be all in the running for the second HRT F1 seat. While Klien has actually driven for the team in the late rounds of 2010, Valsecchi impressed Kolles during the rookie group test in Abu Dhabi last November.
A decision on the team's official lineup is expected by mid to late February. HRT is one of the few teams yet to announce a complete lineup for 2011, Force India being the other squad that is still evaluating the potential of a handful of driver for their upcoming campaign.
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