Backmarker wrote:mario wrote:Again?
On a serious note, whilst it is true in theory that Liuzzi could replace Karthikeyan (given that Liuzzi is officially a reserve driver for HRT), you would expect Clos to be given the seat on the basis that he brings much needed funding.
After all, there was an interesting comment from Alguersuari during the practise sessions in Barcelona, where he was discussing HRT's situation with James Allen, about HRT's current head count and their development situation. According to him, HRT's head count barely numbers 80 people - to put that in perspective, the top teams are limited to 45 people just for their pit crews, and even allowing for the fact that they can buy in components from other teams, thereby cutting out some designers, that is very low indeed. No wonder that HRT are struggling to make up ground on their rivals when they probably have barely half to a third of the number of staff that a typical midfield team has, let alone the front running teams...
You can see the exact number of staff at HRT, down to the truck drivers:
http://www.hrtf1team.com/en/equipo/miembros-del-equipo/ And even some of these staff members are actually employees of SCE Solutions!
Ferrim wrote:To put that number in perspective, I seem to remember (I'm completely sure I read it somewhere back in the day, but the source might be wrong) that Minardi's final headcount was 131 people.
It is refreshing that, for once, a company can be so candid about who it employs from top to bottom (and Jaime looks to be right - if I have counted correctly, there are 79 people listed on that page). In a world where the headcount of the larger teams is often kept secret due to the constant bickering over the Resource Restriction Agreement, amid allegations that this or that team are bending the rules on headcount limitations, a little honesty is welcome - not to mention showing how that team are working on something of a shoestring compared to their rivals.
If that is really it, it is quite remarkable - as Ferrim points out, Minardi were famous for struggling along on a shoestring and found it hard enough despite having nearly 50% more staff, whilst the next smallest team, Marussia, is rumoured to employ more than double the number that HRT do (their head count has been put at about 180 people).
AdrianSutil wrote:I must be honest though. Every time I see Karthikeyen on screen, I wonder how long he has in the car until he's replaced again. You can never be sure who HRT actually want in the car these days.
On another note, Karthikeyen is going to struggle this weekend. Clos had his car in FP1 and he only managed a lap in FP2 until the same problem that stopped Clos reared it's ugly head again. If Karthikeyen can qualify (if he actually qualifies) within .5 of PDLR I'd be impressed. Evryone now pretty much knows what set-up they'll be working with and have done long and short runs on both sets of tyres and different fuel loads whilst Karthikeyen has managed just one out-lap. It's all tall order, especially running a problematic car with new parts.
Speculation over Karthikeyan's seat has rumbled on in the background for some time, with some suggesting that he might be out by Silverstone (which is when his funding is expected to run out), and Clos's presence today has added a fresh impetus to those rumours. As Faustus speculates, though, we shouldn't rule out the possibility that we might see another old pay driver like Sakon crop up again, or perhaps Klien if he can scrape together enough funding (he is, I believe, on the market at the moment).
Closer to now, it'll be tricky for Karthikeyan tomorrow (although he was only due to run those upgraded parts in FP3 anyway), assuming that the car holds together for long enough to get some laps under his belt - either that, or he is going to be putting in a heck of a lot of laps in FP3 in order to make up for lost time.
