- Colin Kolles is leaving HRT effective tomorrow. He has been the team principal for HRT for the past two seasons, and the team was based out of a factory he owns in Germany.
This is part of the step to move the entire team’s operations over to Spain after Thesan capital purchased a controlling share of the team.
No word yet on who will replace Kolles as team principal.
- Out of curiosity, I like to look at the website for Blick, a Swiss newspaper. It’s in German, but I love to see what they say about a couple Swiss hockey players. It is gossipy and I love it.
Well apparently I should have really looked at the top story in the Formula 1 section because I could have written about it in English first!
Supposedly Force India’s lineup will be announced tomorrow, with Nico Hulkenberg replacing Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta staying on with the team. Jules Bianchi, who is currently with Ferrari, will be the reserve driver. He would be contracted to the team similarly to how Daniel Ricciardo was with HRT.
Apparently there was also a rumor a few days ago that Bianchi would replace Kamui Kobayashi at Sauber. I have got to get in with this gossip quicker.
Additionally, there’s a possibility that team owner and principal Vijay Mallya may leave the team over his finances and lack of agreement with Sahara Group, who bought part of the team a couple months ago.
- The FIA joined Twitter, and started tweeting around 4am eastern time.
- Bernie Ecclestone said it was a mistake for Lewis Hamilton to drop his father as his manager. Ecclestone claims that Hamilton hanging around celebrities was a “bad influence.” I’m pretty sure that no matter who the manager is, celebrities tend to be at Grands Prix, but what do I know.
Hamilton of course responded, saying his problems were his fault and not his new management team’s fault. Duh.
But that’s not all the gossip involving Hamilton! Apparently Nicole Scherzinger still loves him despite their breakup. I personally always go to the press to tell everyone about how beautiful my ex-boyfriends are.
- Eric Boullier has hinted that it’s possible for Bruno Senna to be taking the reserve driver role at Lotus F1. Senna said that he would gladly accept the role if he couldn’t find a full-time drive elsewhere.
- Red Bull Racing plan to unveil their 2012 car on February 5, two days before the first testing session, according to French media.
- Caterham has released their logo for next season. You can see it here.
- Former driver JJ Lehto has been sentenced to a 28 month jail sentence for killing a friend in a boat crash. Lehto was drunk while operating the boat. He is appealing the sentence, claiming he was not the driver although the friend’s injuries indicated otherwise.
Lehto’s best result in F1 was a third place finish in 1991. He drove in the sport from 1989 to 1994. Outside of F1, he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice.
Photo from Flickr user nhayashida.
