HRT new team headquarters
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Alltough they are not competitive at all this video shows us that they are realy trying hard to grow. This stuff is realy worth watching and ,at least in my mind gives a little more credit and respect to this team of what they are doing,because critisising is easy,but doing something is very different. Enjoy.
HRT would get twice my respect if they sacked Karthikeyan and replaced him with someone who actually deserves a drive, such as Robert Wickens. Ah well, I guess they really need the money. Can’t they get any sponsorship money themselves?
Yeah, unlike most people I do actually like HRT; I think the team has a lot more fighting spirit in them than Marussia. I think their car is actually very capable, as Ricciardo showed last year it can take the fight to the (back then called) Virgins. All they need is a semi decent driver to do so.Can’t they get any sponsorship money themselves?
Do you think they would be giving Karthikeyan a go if they could?
Do you think they would be giving Karthikeyan a go if they could?
Thank you for very logically answering my question.
It seems that Television revenue from Bernie E., merchandise sales (if they have any), and FIA’s prize money at the end of the year are only good enough to build their car, pay taxes and transportation cost, pay for facilities, and pay their staff. The rest must come from sponsorship, thus they have very little cash left to actually develop the car.
Most big teams have updates made to the car every 2 or 3 Grand Prix weekends. HRT when? Thrice a year? That’s the big difference between the team budget of Ferrari compared to HRT.
Problem is though. Unlike Ferrari or Red Bull, it’s very difficult for a team like HRT to make money. Because they aren’t front runners or midfielders, they get very little Television coverage from FOM. Therefore less Television revenue from Bernie. Companies aren’t interested in sponsoring them because of their lack of success. They don’t have much of a fanbase, so they don’t make much money out of merchandise sales. Their biggest income recourse might just be prize money handed out by the FIA at the end of the year, and that’s only about $30,000,000 for finishing where they did (second last).
That’s ultimately to why Ferrari has a budget of some half a billion US dollars; while HRT barely scraps $60,000,000. It’s very difficult to improve as a team with such small income. Small income by F1 standards that is. :)
Can’t they get any sponsorship money themselves?
Well this isn’t exactly a HRT specific problem. You only have to look at the sparse sides of the cars to see that everyone is struggling for sponsorship due to the fact that the economic climate is rubbish at the moment. Corporates don’t have the cash to bury into sponsoring F1 teams and you can see that up and down the grid. Red Bull essentially sponsor themselves…twice, McLaren and Ferrari have a few select long term partners, Force India and Caterham are platforms for their owners brands, Williams only have sponsors their drivers bring in and Sauber are having to be innovative by creating things like “Sauber Club One” (where, as I understand it, people can invest in the team anonymously for certain rewards) and by their tie up with Chelsea FC.
I am an HRT fan, I will always fight for the right of teams to plod around at the back solely for the pleasure of competing. HRT do that, and they have fought tooth and nail to remain in the sport for 3 years and have beat the much more fancied Virgin/Marussia Virgin/Marussia each year . In my book they are starting to come good by getting their internal operations in place and by bringing the seasoned PDLR on board, I wish everyone would start cutting them some slack! At the 2005 Canadian GP (also the 7th race of the season) the 4 Minardis and Jordans were between 3 – 4.3 seconds off of the pole position pace. At the 2012 Canadian GP HRT were 4.1 seconds off the pole position pace…not that bad when you compare them to fans favourites Minardi and Jordan!
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