Sakon Yamamoto will drive for HRT again in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The team confirmed the Japanese will retain his place in the race squad for the third event in a row.
He will once again drive alongside Bruno Senna.
Yamamoto said:
I can’t wait to go back to the Hungaroring as I know the circuit already very well from my Formula 1 races with Super Aguri, Spyker F1 and with ART in GP2 series.
The races there are always very tough because there is no big gap between the corners. You need a good braking stability and good traction on the car. I keep on pushing for another challenge and I hope that we are luckier than in Hockenheim.
Sakon Yamamoto
2010 Hungarian Grand Prix
chris sz
27th July 2010, 16:15
money talks…
who is paying for him? and who is (not) paying for Karun?
Stoo
27th July 2010, 16:20
Poor ol’ Karun :(
Ed
27th July 2010, 16:31
This got overlooked with the Ferrari fiasco, but Yamamoto’s race at the Hockenheim was hilariously bad.
“Lucas says he was laughing at the start – because YAM started with the pitlane limiter on :-)” (Virgin Racing Twitter)
“For anyone wondering how Yam’s race ended, he accidentally pulled the fire switch instead of his brake bias causing the engine to turn off!” (Ant Davidson Twitter)
Leftie
27th July 2010, 16:37
my goodness, this is incredible!
Mark Hitchcock (@mark-hitchcock)
27th July 2010, 16:38
Ridiculous, he must be giving HRT a lot of money!
hawkfist
27th July 2010, 16:44
To be able to get ahead of Chandhok again after mucking up that badly he has to be bringing more than just money, Honda engines for next year perhaps?
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
27th July 2010, 17:43
After he accidentally pulled the fire switch instead of his brake bias causing the engine to turn off, the team still gives him the drive cause he pays more then Chandok who is much better a driver than Yamamoto
Andy
27th July 2010, 21:36
please tell me why this joker is getting more races than christian klien!
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
28th July 2010, 3:00
@ Andy
Cause he his paying more money to the team may be around $5 million per race which many drivers around him are failing to bring with them.
Mike
28th July 2010, 11:03
If it’s $5 mil a race I can see why he is there, I mean, $10 mil for 2 races has got to be at least a quarter, if not more of HRT’s budget.
GeeMac
27th July 2010, 16:42
I would love to see HRT try justify why they are sticking with Sakon “Moneybags” Yamamoto over Karun “He’s such a nice guy, and he’s not as bad as we all thought he was going to be, so let him race!” Chandhok.
It can’t be the same “impressive performance” rubbish they fed us back in Britain because a driver who has participated in as many races as he has should NOT be 1.3 seconds off the pace of his rookie team mate. We all saw that when Christian Klein jumped in the HRT in free practice he was able to circulate quicker than B Senna. Moneybags, as the senior pro in the line up, should be able to do the same.
Nixon
27th July 2010, 16:42
Mark you are spot on, i just hate when people get into F1 because of money and worse is that they are very slow but still get a seat.
sato113 (@sato113)
27th July 2010, 16:46
keith where’s the HRT race review for germany? i wanna see how YAM’s times were compard to SEN.
Calum
27th July 2010, 17:02
Bruno Senna was always going to get an F1 race, he was good enough in jr formulae so maybe he should have waited, but as it’s so competative trying to get in to F1 he had to jump at the chane even if it was to join this shady organisation. Bruno could have afforded to say no
Karun Chandok was not very succesful at jr formulae so he HAD to take the chance, the only one he would get surely. He has be shown to have gotten an equal amount of performance out of he HRT car as Bruno. He and Bruno are both rookies and both have outperformed Sakon Yamamoto who has past experience.
It is so clearly a desire for extra money from HRT to allow the slowest of all drivers to keep driving,
Bleu
27th July 2010, 17:16
Bruno is already 27 so I think he was almost in the situation where he had to take the drive. In general, rookies this year are a bit older than have been in past few years. Chandhok is 26, di Grassi and Petrov will soon be. Whereas almost everyone of the current grid was younger than them while making their F1 debuts.
George
27th July 2010, 17:07
@Ed. Is this seriously true!!! :O thats just ridiculous and hilarious. Karun is a far better driver and deserves this seat more than yamamoto. How can he be allowed to race if he is actually becoming dangerous??? cutting the engine isn’t really smart in a race (could get hit) and same again for starting with the pit limiter on :|
Tango
27th July 2010, 17:13
This is a disgrace. Last year Badoer was bad, but at least he didn’t pay his way in!
Mike
28th July 2010, 11:09
Badoar was just slow, most likely because he hadn’t been in an actual race in ages, But he was good to have in F1, and for his hard work, he deserved the seat.
Yam deserves a go kart, no, I do, yam deserves a playstation 2 with F1 2006 on it.
lotusien
27th July 2010, 17:16
I am sad for Karun who deserves much more the sat than Yam. He must have a big amount of Yens to keep the drive!
For sato113, during the 15 true laps covered by Yamamoto, Senna was fastest by 9,881s that’s to say 0,658s by lap.
Christian
27th July 2010, 17:18
Senna was also nearly a second and a half faster in qualifying.
Christian
27th July 2010, 17:21
Bruno Senna 01.18:592s
Sakon Yamamoto 01.19:844s
BasCB (@bascb)
27th July 2010, 17:24
I wonder if we will have Karun back at the BBC this time around?
John H
27th July 2010, 20:08
Hope so. They hovered up Davidson pretty nicely… perhaps Karun can get a permanent job on the red button?
I’m wouldn’t be surprised if Bernie gets involved soon seen as the IndianGP is only one year away.
Oli
28th July 2010, 0:07
He has been confirmed for free parctice again via @5LiveF1 on twitter
Pakelika
27th July 2010, 17:28
this is a joke in terms of sport side of it, but well, thats just f1…
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
27th July 2010, 22:36
HRT is a joke anyway…
Magnafw07
28th July 2010, 3:28
Yamamoto is from an incredibly rich, well connected Japanese family.
I think it is actually smart business from Hrt. They would suck no matter who is driving, this way they get Sakons money, Japanese business connections (especially important if they end up linking up with what’s left of Toyota f1) and have the chance to survive and prosper.
Amar
28th July 2010, 10:18
Karun is not only far better than YAM and senna, but also slightly better than most of the new team drivers.
If new teams were given pts on 10-8-6-4-3-2 basis , karun wud hv lead the championship till turkey.
another criteria : no. of laps completed by him is more than other 5 new drivers.
Sharon
28th July 2010, 17:06
:( Oh no, Karun is so much better and a lovely bloke to boot!
JMP
29th July 2010, 20:23
I don’t see why HRT keep using Yamamoto, to be honest I think that Karun Chandhok and Christian Klien are there best drivers. If its to do with the money then surely they’d be driving Christian Klien, hes bound to have a good backing. :/
Go Karun n Christian =D