De La Rosa returns, seriously! [Archive]

Alfa Fan

21st November 2011, 16:18

Pedro de la Rosa will return to Formula 1 racing with HRT next season after signing a two-year deal with the squad, making his competitive comeback after his latest McLaren testing stint

Pedro de la Rosa signs for HRT from 2012 - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96383)

Dave B

21st November 2011, 16:53

I'm not sure who is more desperate: him or HRT!

I suppose the thought is that he'll bring useful experience to the team, but I can't help thinking there are far better options out there.

Roamy

21st November 2011, 17:42

Can you believe they dug this loser up again - no wonder Spain is in economic crisis!!

Knock-on

21st November 2011, 18:09

I don't think it's such a bad thing. He's never going to win the WDC so his pace isn't the issue is it. What HRT need is someone that can help develop the car and if PdlR don't know what a car should feel like, then nobody does.

jens

21st November 2011, 18:15

News that came totally out of the blue! So if Schumacher can race competitively into his 40's, perhaps it has created some belief in the paddock that "it can be done" at that age if you are truly committed. De la Rosa certainly has seemed committed and has kept hanging around even if he hasn't often had a race drive. His comeback in 2010 wasn't particularly embarrassing either, even though Kobayashi looked slightly more impressive.

Solid choice for a team like HRT. Perhaps not much difference whether that experienced driver of the team is Liuzzi or de la Rosa, but DLR can bring some valuable top team experience. But I do wonder, if HRT would really hire Clos (who has been strongly rumoured) as their second driver now, making it an all-Spanish team?

F1boat

21st November 2011, 18:18

Good luck for Pedro! Maybe not the best driver, but he has spirit and experience!

steveaki13

21st November 2011, 18:42

A solid move for HRT, they are a struggling team and with De La Rosa as lead driver that should at least help them develop their team and car, they should probably hire a young driver as his team mate to get the balance.

Stuartf12007

21st November 2011, 18:42

a mobile chicane dressed as a spanish waiter selling cheap paella parading as a Grand prix driver

driveace

21st November 2011, 18:47

Obviously going so they can pick his brain and try to improve from where they are now with the car.This is where I thought that Rubens may have finished up at,what we don't know is if PDR is paying to drive or is a free driver,ie,not getting any pay at all,which I suspect is the case

jens

21st November 2011, 18:51

Now I remembered that in 2010 Sauber was the second team after McLaren to introduce F-duct. And this was directly due to the insider information of de la Rosa, who had freshly departed from McLaren. So no wonder HRT is interested in the latest developments of a top team. Let's see, what kind of interesting design will we see on HRT's car next year! :p :

kfzmeister

21st November 2011, 19:15

Didn't i read than HRT has some sort of technical partnership with McLaren, or are using their KERS next year? Iirc, that would all make sense, then.
PDR at HRT is the perfect marriage coming from Macca. It can only help them. Go HRT.
BTW, thought i read they already wanna attack Marussia at Brazil for the finale....

Nikki Katz

21st November 2011, 19:47

Personally I would've kept Liuzzi over de la Rosa, but really I would've hung around and signed Sutil in a couple of months. Would also have picked up Barrichello before de la Rosa.
Also, a two year contract? He'll be 42 by the end of 2013...

christophulus

21st November 2011, 20:06

Didn't i read than HRT has some sort of technical partnership with McLaren, or are using their KERS next year?

I think they've linked up with Williams actually?

Anyway, of all the people who could've joined HRT, I didn't expect De La Rosa. Especially on a two year deal! He must have stumped up some serious cash to guarantee a seat, or be happy to risk the musical chairs that always seems to happen at HRT.

555-04Q2

22nd November 2011, 06:14

truefan72

22nd November 2011, 07:22

Good luck for Pedro! Maybe not the best driver, but he has spirit and experience!

agreed

22nd November 2011, 10:10

Quite weird to see a team such as HRT announcing a driver so early. I can only presume that the new owners are putting some serious money in themselves and wanted a Spanish driver or that Pedro is bringing a sponsor.

Robinho

22nd November 2011, 13:00

How about this for a theory, HRT (Williams rear end/gearbox) take Rubens as their 2nd driver, maybe part paid by Williams, to allow for either Kimi or Sutil (or both if they don't want the Venezualan money) - following the trend of Lotus (to be Caterham) of taking 2 experienced drivers and the back end of a better car.

please resurrect if this happens, or please ignore when it actually turns out to be rubbish

I am evil Homer

22nd November 2011, 13:12

I'm not a PDlR fan but I actually think this is, ultimately, a smart move for HRT. They need someone to guide their car development if they are seriousd about being an F1 fixture even in the medium-term and trying to move up the grid. There are very few decent drivers capable of that but Pedro is one of them.

As a race driver he's not that brilliant, he's always been steady, but his knowledge of testing and development during his time at McLaren will be invaluable to HRT. Sure, you could put a rookie with potential in the seat but they're unlikely to offer much by way of guidance on why a car is behaving in a certain way. Just look at Daniel, a guy touted as the next 'big thing' who has been pretty poor.

I don't think this is a waste of seat at all, certainly no more so than Maldonado, Petrov or Buemi who have seats a bigger teams with better resources but have shown little to no improvement.

jens

22nd November 2011, 15:59

Just look at Daniel, a guy touted as the next 'big thing' who has been pretty poor.

Cannot agree. He has beaten Liuzzi and also d'Ambrosio on occasion. It's the best that can be done with that car.

I am evil Homer

22nd November 2011, 16:34

Wow he's beaten a rubbish rookie and a never-been.

Robinho

22nd November 2011, 16:39

what is he supposed to do other than beat the guy in the same car and a guy in a faster car. He's hardly going to start popping up in Q2 or beating 4 or 5 guys when in by far the slowest car. Liuzzi, as average as he is, is a benchmark, and with no prior experience Ricciardo is beating him.

This isn't like the Minardi of old who could produe a decent car that could tag on to the rest of the field and occasionally outdrive a few big names in the right hands (on the right tracks). Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel would struggle to qualify that thing off the back row of the grid

Dave B

22nd November 2011, 17:18

It's already been announced, obviously, but now he's been "officially presented", if that makes it more official!
HRT F1 Team (http://www.hispaniaracing.com/news.php?nid=588)

woody2goody

22nd November 2011, 18:14

Well Pedro's a good driver who's certainly not a disgrace, he raced this year remember with no experience of the car and finished 13th or something so he knows what he is doing. I think he'll be at least as good as Schumacher and that's not an insult to either man. Pedro pretty much matched Kobayashi barring one or two races in 2010 so he is definitely going to be an asset to HRT. A surprise? Definitely. A mistake? Definitely not.

Roamy

22nd November 2011, 19:11

ioan

22nd November 2011, 20:27

Looking forward to a Badoer like performance. :\

steveaki13

22nd November 2011, 22:51

Cannot agree. He has beaten Liuzzi and also d'Ambrosio on occasion. It's the best that can be done with that car.

You are right he can't do much more than that

ioan

22nd November 2011, 23:34

I suppose in Pedro's case he has the advantage of recent race experience with Sauber over the past 2 seasons whereas Badoer was simply a test driver for 10 years. When Pedro came back after years away (last race 2006) in 2010 he was hardly off the pace. I do think he'll be an asset to Hispania as he's experienced with Pirelli tyres as their tester and brings knowledge from McLaren etc. I do think Hispania ae abit of a waste, but at his age its great he can still gather interest.

They should have got Rubens instead of Pedro. Anyway 23rd or 24th no big difference.

ShiftingGears

25th November 2011, 08:24

Looking forward to a Badoer like performance. :\

I refuse to believe he could possibly be that bad. Pedro wasn't too shabby last time he was in F1 (which was only Canada this year).

jens

25th November 2011, 15:58

I refuse to believe he could possibly be that bad. Pedro wasn't too shabby last time he was in F1 (which was only Canada this year).

I agree. I think Pedro did pretty well for a driver, who went to drive Friday's FP in McLaren overalls.