Petroltorque wrote:You'd have to question the thinking of HRT's new management. HRT's present performance is chassis limited, not engine limited. I doubt there's more than 10bhp difference between the Cosworth and the Renault. In addition the Renault engine deal will set you back €20 million a year and that's just for the engine. That's almost half their budget. As has been posted earlier HRT would be better served improving their chassis before looking to change supplier.
Same could have been said about Team Lotus on 2010 to 2011. However getting a RS27-2012 and a Red Bull Technology 2009 transmission has given them more options at the rear end of the car with the pull rod suspension and a engine that requires less cooling than the Cosworth. However what we are arging about is the Chicken Vs Egg here.
I belive that Hispania should focus on getting a car that has at least 4,000Km to 5,000km testing in it and having two complete cars ready for the first FP1 iof the year, ready to get 750Km on each chassis in the first weekend of the season. Its about distance for the first 4 events of the year as that will give them a idea on what path their development needs to take for 2012. This is the only way they will improve their performance relitive to 2009 and 2010.
They have contenuity with the Williams Grand Prix Engineering transmission and the Cosworth CA2012 powerplant for 2012 with the 2011 Williams Hybrid KERS as well. They will also be running the 2012 WIlliams transmission with an adapted case as the Williams cases will be optomised for the Renault RS27 power-plants, Hispania will be running a diffrent case for the CA2012 power-plants. The only diffrence in the cases will be the mounting joints and bolt posistions at the bulkhead. This is advantagous for both parties as Williams are getting double the data on the gearbox, and Hispania are getting the latest technology in their boxes on their cars. The KERS could be a headache they could do without, but the 0.35s average performance gain is worth it as at some tracks this will be more and some will be less.
Im cautiosisly optomistic for the 2012 Hispania chassis. Im giving it a 1.3 to 1.7 second gain to the year end performance as long as it gets the testing distance under it.