Grand Prix Rejects

David AGS wrote:Here is a tribute for HRT, using Sky Sports F1 footage

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xwenyk_hrt-2012_sport

Great job

It can be said in 6 letters and it's definitely not what Adrian Campos had in mind when he started the whole thing:

RIP HRT.

Quite happy for PDR, I've just read he's going to be Ferrari's tester...

http://www.f1passion.it/2013/01/f1-situ ... formula-1/

He's basically the new Roberto Moreno: Give him any F1 car and he'll gladly drive it, giving back feedback. Too bad PdlR hasn't had many full seasons to drive.

tumbano wrote:Quite happy for PDR, I've just read he's going to be Ferrari's tester...

What a great end to the career. I know they always prefer to be racing but just like Badoer he can carve himself a great reputation at Maranello and have fun doing it.

Is there any chance PDLR might get shifted into the road car test team? After all, supercar and hypercar manufacturers have a history of employing ex-F1 drivers to test their machinery - e.g. Maserati (Gabriele Tarquini), Pagani (Andrea Montermini) and Bugatti (Pierre-Henri Raphanel). The F70 might need a last bit of fettling before it's released to its mega-rich soon-to-be owners, the next California might well in development, and if they're going to look forward a bit, the was raised so high with the 458 that its eventual replacement is going to have to be so stratospherically brilliant that it will give Jeremy Clarkson an aneurysm. So, Pedro - how about that for a job?

Also, have Lamborghini managed to get themselves a decent replacement for Valentino Balboni yet? I'll bet there's a queue of ex-F1 drivers who'd take that job, no questions asked...

dinizintheoven wrote:Also, have Lamborghini managed to get themselves a decent replacement for Valentino Balboni yet?

Yes, it's Top Gear favourite Max Venturi: Lamborghini Tester.

I have only seen the Karthikeyan one before. I didn't know the PdlR one existed, but it's even better!

dinizintheoven wrote:Is there any chance PDLR might get shifted into the road car test team? After all, supercar and hypercar manufacturers have a history of employing ex-F1 drivers to test their machinery - e.g. Maserati (Gabriele Tarquini), Pagani (Andrea Montermini) and Bugatti (Pierre-Henri Raphanel). The F70 might need a last bit of fettling before it's released to its mega-rich soon-to-be owners, the next California might well in development, and if they're going to look forward a bit, the was raised so high with the 458 that its eventual replacement is going to have to be so stratospherically brilliant that it will give Jeremy Clarkson an aneurysm. So, Pedro - how about that for a job?

Also, have Lamborghini managed to get themselves a decent replacement for Valentino Balboni yet? I'll bet there's a queue of ex-F1 drivers who'd take that job, no questions asked...

It's possible that he might be asked to do a little testing for Ferrari's road car division, although that would probably be something of a side activity. It's more likely that he'll spend his time testing Ferrari's sports cars instead, I suspect - didn't Marc Gené (who is still technically a reserve driver for Ferrari's F1 team) get involved in testing the GT3 version of the 458, IIRC?

CoopsII wrote:

tumbano wrote:Quite happy for PDR, I've just read he's going to be Ferrari's tester...

What a great end to the career. I know they always prefer to be racing but just like Badoer he can carve himself a great reputation at Maranello and have fun doing it.

That was when the FIA allowed any testing outside race days. Pedro, however, will likely sit around doing zip or testing cars from 2009. Which I would think would be one of the last things Ferrari would want to think about, considering the circumstances.

The sad and not correct thing is that HRT had no made an official statement about his failure, while the website, the official pages on Facebook and Twitter are online but not updated

PR isn't being paid so no press release or statement.

Monstrobolaxa wrote:PR isn't being paid so no press release or statement.

I don't think is the real issue, I think that is not so difficult made an official statement on the website..I'm pretty sure that they never wanted say "game over"

f1andrea wrote:

Monstrobolaxa wrote:PR isn't being paid so no press release or statement.

I don't think is the real issue, I think that is not so difficult made an official statement on the website..I'm pretty sure that they never wanted say "game over"

That assumes that there is anybody left who can access the website in the first place - the media team were cut back extremely quickly (by the time they were in Brazil there were rumours that they'd cut back to a single person in their PR team), and once that person, along with the few remaining employees, were let go, I expect that all access to their websites, Twitter accounts and so forth was effectively blocked.

It's about time to do a Pacific and save the website, then.

I have wrote this article (in italian):

http://www.blogf1.it/2013/01/25/hrt-occ ... -nel-2014/

In a few words, In UK says that HRT is in talk with a pair of investors, but probably for 2014 season.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105319

Long live "Scorpion."
Because we need teams that sound like Bond Villains.

Shadaza wrote:http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105319

Long live "Scorpion."
Because we need teams that sound like Bond Villains.

Oh my god that's brilliant news!

Sounds like they're pretty far advanced with their plans, I really hope the FIA allows them to race this season, that would be fantastic!

I really, really, really doubt we'll see Scorpion ever on the grid.

But I really, really, REALLY hope we do.

GwilymJJames wrote:I really, really, really doubt we'll see Scorpion ever on the grid.

But I really, really, REALLY hope we do.

This. Signature edited to suit this information.

I bet Stefanovic is involved somewhere. He usually is. Either him or Phoenix Finance. Hopefully both.

OMIGOD OMIGOD
Please please please make this happen!!!

IT LIIIIIIVES! Turn up at Australia, entry or not, with Avon tyres and a Hart engine!

A joint Canadian/USA effort.

So Force1USA and Jacques Villeneuve?

I doubt it will happen, too, but I really want another team on the grid. Especially if it is the reincarnation of HRT.
Maybe these American & Canadian investors are interested in getting Kyle Busch on their team, too.

I BELIEVE IN HRT

José María López to finally get his F1 debut???

GwilymJJames wrote:I bet Stefanovic is involved somewhere. He usually is. Either him or Phoenix Finance. Hopefully both.

As long as they turn up with a nosecone, that's good enough for me.

So who the devil are Scorpion Racing? Who is behind it?

Faustus wrote:So who the devil are Scorpion Racing? Who is behind it?

Lex Luthor.

CarlosFerreira wrote:

Faustus wrote:So who the devil are Scorpion Racing? Who is behind it?

Lex Luthor.

Dr Evil disagrees with you. And Mini-Me does too by the way.

DanielPT wrote:

CarlosFerreira wrote:

Faustus wrote:So who the devil are Scorpion Racing? Who is behind it?

Lex Luthor.

Dr Evil disagrees with you. And Mini-Me does too by the way.

Well, when that lot figures out who's behind this mess, Bernie would like a word.

It turns out there used to be a "Scorpion Racing" team in Canada. But due to legal reasons pushed by none other than Pirelli they had to change their name....I am not making this up see bellow!
http://scorpionracing.ca/

These are clearly not the same guys but it seems the Scorpions will have to change their name or perhaps it is a Pirelli team all along (Conspiracy Theory)

Shadaza wrote:A joint Canadian/USA effort.

So Force1USA and Jacques Villeneuve?

Villeneuve is the new voice of SKY F1 Italy

f1andrea wrote:I have wrote this article (in italian):

http://www.blogf1.it/2013/01/25/hrt-occ ... -nel-2014/

In a few words, In UK says that HRT is in talk with a pair of investors, but probably for 2014 season.

this is the demonstration that what I've wrote wasn't rubbish!!!

C'mon Scorpion Racing!!

made my night. Its Autosport so its true

COME ON SCORPION!!

Shadaza wrote:It turns out there used to be a "Scorpion Racing" team in Canada. But due to legal reasons pushed by none other than Pirelli they had to change their name....I am not making this up see bellow!
http://scorpionracing.ca/

These are clearly not the same guys but it seems the Scorpions will have to change their name or perhaps it is a Pirelli team all along (Conspiracy Theory)

Why would Pirelli want their own team anyway? They already have access to their own test team (OK, strictly speaking the team is run by Lotus rather than Pirelli, but Lotus only get access to the same test data that Pirelli gives to all of the teams and Pirelli doesn't have to worry about the administrative side of running its own test team).

Overall, this story does sound peculiar - whilst investment from the North American continent would probably be very attractive for Bernie (since it could be one way to potentially help open up the US market to F1), what is there for the team to revive? HRT's entry for 2013 appears to be void so they'd effectively have to enter the sport as a new team if they wanted to compete in 2014, the employees appear to have headed elsewhere within the world of motorsport some time ago and the company had little in the way of tangible assets (their headquarters were rented, as was much of their equipment, and most of the parts from their old cars have probably reached the end of their design lives). Much as it'd be great if this worked out, somehow I can't see this coming to fruition.

What a name, Scorpion Racing. Epic.

everytime the scorpion racing cars go for an overtake will they shout "GET OVER HERE!!"

See, Mario, what you say there is probably what we're all thinking, this all looks far too good to be true and in reality there wasn't much left of HRT once it was all over anyway, but the story made Autosport, and judging by other news outlets on the internet, it seems it was a bit of a scoop for them too. We all know that a story only tends to go up on Autosport when it's concrete, which is why I'm certain that these rumours about Scorpion Racing must have some substance behind them, otherwise Autosport wouldn't run a story based on a fanciful rumour.

AndreaModa wrote:See, Mario, what you say there is probably what we're all thinking, this all looks far too good to be true and in reality there wasn't much left of HRT once it was all over anyway, but the story made Autosport, and judging by other news outlets on the internet, it seems it was a bit of a scoop for them too. We all know that a story only tends to go up on Autosport when it's concrete, which is why I'm certain that these rumours about Scorpion Racing must have some substance behind them, otherwise Autosport wouldn't run a story based on a fanciful rumour.

I guess that you always need somebody to calm things down a little when stories like this arise - asides from that, although Autosport has generally been held up as a reasonable yardstick for the validity of a story, even they have been prone to the occasional journalistic error or oversensationalised story (there was the story that they had to hastily retract in late 2011 when they wrongly stated that a particular McLaren employee had made some very disparaging remarks about Button and Hamilton, only for the remarks to turn out to be false).
We will see how things go - if this is indeed correct, then we should have confirmation of their intentions soon enough (and I imagine that the FIA would, in turn, make its position fairly clear too).