Colin Kolles Q&A: HRT are making progress in all areas 04 Jun 2010
As a new team with two young drivers and no pre-season testing under their belt, HRT had a mountain to climb at the start of the 2010 season. Team principal Colin Kolles evaluates their performance over the opening seven races and looks ahead to closing in on the midfield as the year progresses…
Q: As we are now nearing the eighth Grand Prix of the year, what can you say about this season up until now?
Colin Kolles: The first objective was to arrive in Bahrain, which was a tough start. Since then we were trying to stabilize the team and to reach a more normal way of working. We are making progress in all the areas which is positive.
Q: What are your impressions of the car’s progress up until now?
CK: It’s now in our hands and we have our own development programme. We will have some updates on the current car. For 2010 we have to take a rather pragmatic approach. Regarding the 2011 development programme we will have an announcement very soon.
Q: What can you say about the drivers, Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna? Are you happy with their development?
CK: Karun and Bruno are very talented young drivers who have developed well in the first races. Bruno had quite a good qualifying and race in Istanbul, Karun a good race in Monaco. Unfortunately Bruno was stopped by a fuel pick-up problem and Karun by a race incident. I am confident and looking forward to Bruno and Karun doing a good job over the coming races, which will improve the overall performance of the team.
Q: Both test and reserve drivers, Sakon Yamamoto and Christian Klien, have taken part in a Friday session with the team. Are you happy with their performances? In what way do they help the team?
CK: I think both did a good job, giving additional feedback to our engineers.
Q: After fighting for positions with other teams at the Turkish Grand Prix, what can we expect from HRT in Canada?
CK: We expect a similar performance if not better. I think the car’s characteristics will fit circuits like Canada and Valencia better. We should get closer.
