28 replies to this topic

[Massa]

Remember that time HRT beat Virgin two years in a row and people still pretend Virgin will someday amount to something because they have pretty colors and some decals?  I WILL NEVER FORGET.

[HandyNZL]

That's last years car, less the techno graphics isn't it?......

[Massa]

I honestly wouldn't know.  It was on GP Update yesterday as a "picture of the 2012 car" then the article disappeared.  I have created two car launch threads in my life and the first one was posting an image of the RB1 as the RB3.

[JHS18]

Who really cares about HRT anymore? They'll probably have gone bankrupt by midseason anyway.

[Rainmaster]

Who ever cared!

[HandyNZL]

We've been saying that they'll go bankrupt the last two years...yet they're still there...

[Massa]

Filling buckets with sunshine in here, eh?

How I'll laugh when the Marussia launches and the comments about how they're going to be a legitimate team after losing to HRT both years in the WCC flow freely from our keyboards.

Little guys digging deep and plugging away.  I like them.

[Quiet One]

I can't say I like them, but it is certainly the most respectable team down there. This is the closest to a team built from scratch, with barely any funding (both terms, in F1 context). They are exactly what everybody is bitching about as lacking in F1: a non-manufacturers team.

When small teams struggling to get on their own feet are a joke, and big manufacturer teams are a joke, and teams in the middle are a joke...the problem is not F1 anymore, the problem is people thinking "if I can say something sarcastic about them then I'm cool"

[Rainmaster]

You guys serious? Small teams are not a joke! HRT are not a joke, but I can't see why anybody would care about or like them. Sure, good luck to them and all since they are racers like everyone else, but they really never showed much at all, just like Virgin (and really saying they are better than Virgin is meaningless, when finishing higher in the WCC depends on who gets a 12th position on luck or something ridiculous. Hardly means they are better run as a team. Disclaimer: I don't care which of them is better, just pointing out that at the back of the grid, the WCC is a bit of a lottery based on often anomalous results). Anyway, liking either of them is similar to liking an utterly terrible driver who shows very little sign of ever improving or getting a result. On the other hand, and still speaking of small teams, Caterham went about it in the most respectable way. Despite the unfortunate/silly naming issues they got into, they hired talented drivers and team members, and generally did things in an organised sort of way. As a result, they have the honour of not being subject to sarcasm on forums, by people whose opinions carry no weight, who are trying to be cool! Quite the honour I think you will agree

[Massa]

Marussia have actually shown some signs of progress, partnering with McLaren, that Renault guy, etc.  Glock's not a bad driver either, though the team is dead to me for endorsing Pic's check when they could have had the faster Robert Wickens.

HRT?  They get an excuse from me.  When you change ownership every other week, you're not exactly going to go places.  They haven't had any stability at all.  Force India didn't become legitimate until they finally settled after going from Eddie Jordan-less Jordan to Midland to Spyker.  I don't expect HRT to ever even be as good as FI, but they were admitted into the sport and have hung in there.  The much flashier ART Grand Prix, US F1, Epsilon Euskadi, etc. never made it that far.

Drivers?  I know they've never had anyone great, fine.  But it's not that they don't try.  They took a chance on Senna being as good as he used to be rated.  They got Liuzzi, who won the F3000 championship and has been a steady runner with not-that-great cars (so he lost to his teammate at FI; how many teammates has Kovalainen beaten until going to Caterham, exactly)?  Ricciardo is touted as a future star, and they got him for a while.  This year they have de la Rosa, who is a big asset with his experience and could leave this team behind better than it is now.  Have they had worse hires driver-wise than Caterham?  Sure.  They've also had less connections than Fernandes to build the team around (and that is not a knock on Caterham; Fernandes has done a great job and has every right to use Tune Group to help his team).  Marussia?  Eh.

So they're awful, fine...

I can think of quite a few teams people look back on with so much happy nostalgia that were just as bad at never improving as HRT.  Can't say I'd know if their situations were more stable managerially, but I'm assuming Minardi, for example, was.

Super Aguri these guys ain't, but come on...I like them, because they allow me to be cool and make sarcastic comments about them.

[Rainmaster]

Reasonable reply as ever Erico. I just wanted to defend sarcasm

[Massa]

The italicized I looks just like a forward slash which looks just like an italicized l.  Just like the F110 looks just like the F111 looks just like the F112 and I suspect if you italicized the ones in those car names it'd look a lot like a forward slash which looks a lot like...

[HandyNZL]

The problem with HRT is that they are just, well, bland.  There seems to be nothing for a fan to grab hold of and relate to.

Minardi always said they were the underdog, fighting hard for their place on the grid.  And people respond to that, relate to it, and get in and support them.  Same with Super Aguri - Aguri himself had some charisma that people liked, and from there was able to build the brand.

de la Rosa is the best driver choice that HRT have made since their inception.  Pedro knows his stuff, is well respected by guys like Button and Hamilton to do the hard yards for setup work back at team HQ.  Both Hamilton and Button benefited from de la Rosa's base line setups so that at the track the two of them just needed to make small changes.

HRT needs some charisma.  They need to do something out on track that attracts some buzz.  Missing the first race like they did last year, and turning in a second race weekend as they did in Aussie will never win them the "underdog team" tag...more the Keystone Cops.

[JHS18]

HandyNZL, on 24 February 2012 - 04:36 AM, said:

The problem with HRT is that they are just, well, bland.  There seems to be nothing for a fan to grab hold of and relate to.

Minardi always said they were the underdog, fighting hard for their place on the grid.  And people respond to that, relate to it, and get in and support them.  Same with Super Aguri - Aguri himself had some charisma that people liked, and from there was able to build the brand.

de la Rosa is the best driver choice that HRT have made since their inception.  Pedro knows his stuff, is well respected by guys like Button and Hamilton to do the hard yards for setup work back at team HQ.  Both Hamilton and Button benefited from de la Rosa's base line setups so that at the track the two of them just needed to make small changes.

HRT needs some charisma.  They need to do something out on track that attracts some buzz.  Missing the first race like they did last year, and turning in a second race weekend as they did in Aussie will never win them the "underdog team" tag...more the Keystone Cops.

Well said, couldn't agree more.

Ah, it's more Kolles I couldn't stand, now he's gone, maybe...maybe I may actually start to give a f*ck about them...

But with a line-up of de la Rosa and Karthikeyan, I doubt it somehow.

[Massa]

Find me anything in F1 with charisma...

[Caesar]

Massa, on 25 February 2012 - 05:00 PM, said:

Find me anything in F1 with charisma...

speaking of  car that is dog..........or  dog that is car....
no,no. from the beginning. beign slow makes cars into dogs, except if the dog is actually a dog from the beginning, ...and without a carisma

i don't know anymore.

here is something with dog, F1car and carisma!

[Massa]

That is awesome, thank you Caesar.

[JHS18]

Apparently this could be their livery for this season.

[Massa]

Huge improvement from last year if they go with that.

[HandyNZL]

Very Arrows-ish....so I give it

[JHS18]

They managed it - only after reportedly asking GP2 teams for some spare bolts...

[Massa]

Tell me that isn't just a testing livery.  Those colors are awesome.  Not the perfect design, but great, great, great colors.  Hints of Kingfishers gone by.

[JHS18]

I'd be surprised if they had money for paint to do a test and race livery, so yes, my guess is that is the final livery.

To be honest, looks like a GP3 car. Will probably go like one too.

Edited by JHS18, 05 March 2012 - 09:19 PM.

[Rainmaster]

The livery is certainly very nice from the side.

[HandyNZL]

Has more aggressive sidepods at the front, but the nose from the side, whilst resembling a step, I think is still the nose from last year which had flutes where the suspension mounted on.  Need to see more pics.

[BradSpeedMan]

JHS18, on 05 March 2012 - 09:18 PM, said:

I'd be surprised if they had money for paint to do a test and race livery, so yes, my guess is that is the final livery.

To be honest, looks like a GP3 car. Will probably go like one too.

True. My head says it will go like one but in my heart I hope for something better...

Edited by BradSpeedMan, 06 March 2012 - 09:24 AM.

[HandyNZL]

The paint job makes it VERY hard to determine if the nose is stepped, or just fluted like last years car...

[Massa]

I don't have moderator abilities in this section, so the best I can do is try to flush the spam down a little...

The F112...it's got a long way to go.  Will they make it in Malaysia?

[HandyNZL]

Yeah, me neither...maybe we should just watch the Merryweather fight on PPV instead????