autoevolution
 

HRT to Use Toyota's Motorsport Operations in 2011

Hispania Racing F1 Team is obviously the least performing teams of the 2010 season, but also the outfit with the lowest development rate from the F1 newly-entrants. Due to the poor work put in by Italian chassis manufacturer Dallara, the HRT single-seater has had a hard time matching the lap times of GP2 machines this first half of season, which raises a question mark over the FIA's constant push for a bigger F1 field for the future.

However, while many are already projecting the death of the Spanish outfit, team owner Jose Ramon Carabante – whose assets have currently been frozen by a Spanish court – seems to make some decent steps into restoring his team's image for the 2011 season. And the first move is to sign an agreement with an organization that has some decent experience in setting up an efficient F1 team.

We're not talking about an already established team in the series, but about former F1 outfit Toyota. The Japanese carmaker withdrew from the sport at the end of 2009, abandoning both its Cologne operations and the plans to develop its already built Toyota TF110 challenger.

Italy's 422race.com reported that HRT has held some talks with Toyota for the purchase of their entire Motorsport's Cologne headquarters, staff and designs of the unraced 2010 car (the aforementioned TF110). The negotiations seem to have been held for a long period of time and a contract will be signed in the upcoming few days.

A strong argument that these rumors might be true is the fact that “Toyota is reportedly rehiring engineers including by publishing announcements in specialist magazines,” as reported by the GMM news agency.

Toyota's first attempt to sell its Motorsport Centre dates back to the beginning of 2010, when Serbian team Stefan GP signed an agreement to purchase the facility in case they would receive an F1 entry from the FIA. Since that didn't happen, the Cologne headquarters was left untouched for half of year now.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories