Hispania to firm up Toyota deal for F1 2011 within days
Financially-struggling F1 2010 newcomer Hispania Racing is reportedly now just days away from firming up a deal with Toyota for technical support in 2011.
The first Spanish outfit ever to enter the top flight announced in May that it would not be continuing its troubled relationship with Italian chassis-builder Dallara - causing some to wonder just how the Murcia-based operation would make it on its own, with only the experienced and well-regarded Geoff Willis as a consultant but no bona fide engineering or technical department as such.
However, according to Italian website 422race.com, the end is in sight to protracted negotiations between HRT and Toyota - with the chief sticking-point along the way having been the uncertainty over the Jos? Ram?n Carabante-owned squad's financial wellbeing, a sticking-point that is now understood to have been resolved.
Having initially sold the rights to the chassis, gearbox and engine of its TF110 that never raced to unsuccessful Serbian hopeful Stefan GP late last year, following the dissolution of that relationship when the Zoran Stefanovic-led concern failed to be granted a grid slot for this season, it appears the Japanese manufacturer is now willing to instead pledge its technical support to HRT.
To that end, Toyota is believed to be re-hiring engineers and designers and will make available to Hispania its extensive Cologne factory and facilities, as well as the designs of the TF110 - giving some substance to Karun Chandhok's repeated if deliberately vague assertions that HRT has some 'good plans' ahead for 2011 [see separate story - click here].
