There was only one seat left to take: HRT was Vitantonio Liuzzi’s last chance to secure a full-time seat in 2011. The Italian took it and will therefore be Narain Karthikeyan’s teammate within the Spanish team.<\/p>\n
But we can only say that it was a choice by default that the driver made. Indeed, he had a valid contract for the 2011 season with Force India. However, having been largely outperformed by his teammate Adrian Sutil, Vijay Mallya’s team preferred to replace him with the third driver of 2010, Paul di Resta, who had just been crowned DTM champion.<\/p>\n
HRT was therefore his last chance to keep a foothold in Formula 1, even though it was the least performing team with the most limited budget. He had taken a first step towards this signing by being invited to the Barcelona tests in February.<\/p>\n
This is certainly his last chance to show what he is capable of behind the wheel of a single-seater and to hope to bounce back into a slightly more prestigious team. In any case, he finds at HRT a personality he has known for years, namely Colin Kolles, the team manager: “I have known Tonio for several years as he drove for me in lower categories. He is a very professional driver who will bring a lot to the team. I am convinced that he has the qualities to develop a car and his speed. He has shown in the past that he has significantly contributed to moving a car up from the back of the grid.”<\/p>\n
If no sponsor announcement was made with this arrival, HRT might have tried to secure a driver with solid Grand Prix experience (63 under his belt) while Narain Karthikeyan has not driven a Formula One car since the Jordan in 2005. But the eight million dollars from Tata was an offer that a team like HRT could not refuse.<\/p>\n