HRT to sign a new designer

HRT is closing in on a deal for experienced designer Jorg Zander to head up its technical operations, as part of an effort to ramp up facilities in Munich.

With HRT's new owners Thesan Capital helping team principal Colin Kolles push forward with plans to help the outfit move forward, a rethink about its technical operations has been under way over the past few months.

AUTOSPORT understands that an original plan to set up a design office in Brackley has been abandoned, and that the idea now is to base the operation out of Munich, which is just an hour's drive away from the team's race factory at Greding.

A deal put in place for the team to use the Mercedes-Benz wind tunnel facility in Brackley will continue.

As part of his new technical role, Zander is set to be put in charge of the Munich facility to help push forward with the design of the 2012 car, and he will work in tandem with new chief aerodynamicist Stephane Schosse, who has worked at Toyota, Sauber and Ligier in the past.

Zander has a depth of experience in F1, having worked at Toyota, BAR, Williams, BMW-Sauber, and then Honda/Brawn GP - leaving in the middle of the team's title-winning 2009 campaign.

The technical shake-up at HRT appears to point towards technical director Geoff Willis no longer being part of the team's plans, having originally joined the outfit in February 2010 as a consultant.

Hopefully this man will push them in the right direction, theirs something fun about HRT reminds of Minardi but worse

source: autosport

Hopefully this will mean HRT start getting their act together and start chasing virgin and Lotus. Though Virgin havent improved all that much either.

Perhaps this time they may employ a race car designer instead of a tractor specialist!

Funnily enough HRT are the one team I really have no opinion on. Don't particularly like 'em and don't really hate them.

I was really desperate for Tony Fernandes and Lotus to make a bit of a splash. Looks like that won't happen now as they'll be racing as Team Air Asia Caterham or something from next season.

I also wanted Virgin to do well, both because I like Richard Branson and the thought of a team designing a car entirely by computer. Also quite like the look of their cars too.