HRT drop Karun Chandhok for German Grand Prix

Glaucus · 17 Jul 2010 at 10:31

You guessed it for Sakon Yamamoto

H9ow desperate are they for money

Hispania drop Karun Chandhok for German Grand Prix
Indian Karun Chandhok has been dropped by the Hispania team in favour of their test and reserve driver Sakon Yamamoto for the next grand prix in Germany.

Hispania are known to be struggling financially but it is believed they want to evaluate all their drivers before establishing a line-up for 2011.

Hispania have four drivers under contract - Senna, Chandhok, Yamamoto and Austrian former Jaguar and Red Bull driver Christian Klien, who has driven in Friday practice in place of Senna and Chandhok at two races this season.

Good move or not?

I think it's good they are using this season as a test bed, to sort themselfs out. However this should be done in testing not on a race day. Can I blame FIA..

Pete19s · 17 Jul 2010 at 11:08

If they are evaluating drivers why is Klien not in a race seat this time round? I suspect he would be much closer to the pace than Yamamoto was at Silverstone. Could it be a mix of both evaluating drivers for next year and Yamamoto having a wad of cash?

Glaucus · 17 Jul 2010 at 11:10

Pete19s said:
If they are evaluating drivers why is Klien not in a race seat this time round? I suspect he would be much closer to the pace than Yamamoto was at Silverstone. Could it be a mix of both evaluating drivers for next year and Yamamoto having a wad of cash?

it implys he will be in a seat later on. Probably best giving a driver at least 2 races back to back, to get into the swing of thing. Remember there's no testing, so it's a big ask for them to expect results straight away.

It is likely that Klien will be given a run in at least one race as well.

arknor · 17 Jul 2010 at 11:18

i thought senna and chandhok were suposed to have been punished by missing silverstone because of internal emails they had sent criticizing the team principal.

chankhok didnt get dropped for silverstone though because hes a pay driver and there are certain conditions that must be met or the team doesnt get the money , the money is kept with a middle man and only passed on if everything is done correctly , this person just happens to be chanhoks fathers old friend bernie.

thats what i heard anyway, something is definetly awry with HRT

Glaucus · 17 Jul 2010 at 11:20

That was only reported in German papers.
This version sounds much more likely if the line up is true at Germany GP.

Pete19s · 17 Jul 2010 at 11:22

I can understand wanting to give Yamamoto 2 drives back to back as he has been out of F1 for a decent chunk of time. The lack of in season testing is no doubt a big issue but I suspect the total lack of pre-season testing is an even bigger issue as far as driver evaluation goes.

Glaucus · 17 Jul 2010 at 11:25

I still think we should have a test day on either Thursday or Monday at a race weekend, maybe every other race, or maybe just 1 in 3. add an extra £20 on to tickets if you want to watch practice day. Teams can run different drivers and parts and will add almost nothing to costs.

JRS · 17 Jul 2010 at 12:23

Think it's about time that the FIA come out and admit that their previous administration royally cocked up the new team selection, given the USF1 debacle and now HRT running out of cash to the point at which they'll take on Sakon Yamamoto of all people just to get $5m of sponsorship money.

Shame for Chandok though. By my count he's beaten Senna to the flag (or finished when Senna didn't) six times. He beat Yamamoto last tme out. He's recorded a classified finish in eight out of the ten races held so far. I don't see why he should be the one to make way if performance has anything to do with it, so it can only be cash.

Glaucus · 17 Jul 2010 at 12:37

If Klien gets a drive, then it is more than just money, although I'm sure that helps a hell of a lot.

He got a significantly faster lap last race over Chandhok, how far behind was he? bbc doesn't give race times for lapped drivers.

Pete19s · 17 Jul 2010 at 13:54

AcidHell2 said:
If Klien gets a drive, then it is more than just money, although I'm sure that helps a hell of a lot.

He got a significantly faster lap last race over Chandhok, how far behind was he? bbc doesn't give race times for lapped drivers.

Yamamoto posted a 1.38.309 on lap 50
Chandhok posted a 1.38.798 on lap 40

Not sure how tyre wear would factor into the lap times but he was a decent chunk quicker at the later stages. Although wasn't Chandhok pulling out somthing like a second a lap on Yamamoto at the start of the race?

arknor · 17 Jul 2010 at 15:08

10 laps worth of fuel is probably close to that gap anyway

Glaucus · 17 Jul 2010 at 16:32

both would have been caryring the same fuel load and of hit the same points during the race, not sure how there pit stops panned out. In other words how muxch slower was Chandhok on lap 50.

arknor · 17 Jul 2010 at 17:44

yea but when you do a fast lap on lap 50 your obviously 10 laps lighter than the guy who did his on lap 40.

Flibster · 17 Jul 2010 at 19:48

Chandhok's car was also carrying damage.

After the pit stop, I ran over some debris which damaged the barge board and the side pod on my car costing downforce. So after the safety car it was all about just managing the damage and the gap to Sakon.

Duke · 17 Jul 2010 at 20:20

Never knew they had any downforce to lose

arknor · 17 Jul 2010 at 21:51

Duke said:
Never knew they had any downforce to lose

its a pitty they cant just strap a few cereal boxes onto the car

Setroc · 18 Jul 2010 at 00:38

JRS said:
Shame for Chandok though. By my count he's beaten Senna to the flag (or finished when Senna didn't) six times. He beat Yamamoto last tme out. He's recorded a classified finish in eight out of the ten races held so far. I don't see why he should be the one to make way if performance has anything to do with it, so it can only be cash.

Senna has been faster than Chandhok this season, beating Chandhok in qualifying 6 times to 3 I think. Both drivers have crashed out of the race once each.

"By my count he's beaten Senna to the flag (or finished when Senna didn't) six times"

but four of those were thanks to Senna having car failures...

JRS · 18 Jul 2010 at 10:05

Setroc said:
"By my count he's beaten Senna to the flag (or finished when Senna didn't) six times"

but four of those were thanks to Senna having car failures...

So Senna's a car breaker

pingwing · 20 Jul 2010 at 23:23

Its sad that HRT are doing this though i do see they pretty much have no other option seeing as the FIA really should have given the 3 new teams a few extra test days to get them selves sorted out...

On the Chandhok thing, i like him a lot more than senna, he not only more likeable i rate him as at least more realistic about his racing

Flibster · 27 Jul 2010 at 16:41

pingwing said:
On the Chandhok thing, i like him a lot more than senna, he not only more likeable i rate him as at least more realistic about his racing

Chandhok got a lot of respect from a lot of people in Bahrain by having his first laps in the car in Qualifying. He's really passionate about the sport as well as seems a genuinely nice guy.

Unfortunately Chandhok is out of the car again in Hungary. Yamamoto has the seat again.

Hopefully he'll be back with 5Live as he was great.

Yamamoto demonstrated his ability to bring attention to the team by starting with the pit limiter on and then switching the engine off rather than changing the brake balance...

Sadly, it's pure about money as if they wanted a better driver they have Klien signed as a reserve/test driver as well as Yamamoto. Yamamoto brings millions though.

[edit]
5liveF1 on twitter confirms that Chandhok will be joining them again on Friday for Free Practice 1 and 2