While the Formula 1 media in Britain is getting excited about having Paul di Resta as another British driver in Formula 1, alongside Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, over in Germany, the nominally-Spanish Hispania Racing Team is preparing for the season ahead with the principal shareholders, the Carabante Family, continuing to seem out of place and bemused by the Formula 1 world. There is little official information available but it is clear that whatever money the team has is being generated in Germany where team principal Colin Kolles has been working hard not only to help the team survive, but also to produce a new car for the 2011 season. The team says that the old car will be used for the tests but that the new car ought to be finished in time for the Bahrain test.

“The 2011 car will be a completely new car, and will be called F111,” Kolles says. “The F111 is being made by Hispania Racing with several groups of engineers. At the moment, there are approximately 40 designers finalizing the first spec, under the leadership of Geoff Willis as technical director and Paul White as chief designer.”

The manufacturing is being done largely by sub-contractors with Williams F1 supplying the gearbox and rear end, Pankl Racing Systems in Austria providing the drivetrain and the chassis being built in Salzburg by Carbo Tech Composites GmbH. This company has developed rapidly in recent years thanks in part to a deal that it enjoyed with Scuderia Toro Rosso to build chassis in the days when the the Faenza team was using Red Bull Racing designs. A Carbo Tech chassis was thus the winner of a Grand Prix at Monza in 2008 when Sebastian Vettel won the Italian GP.

The company is in the process of being taken over by German automotive group Mubea and will soon be renamed Mubea Carbo Tech GmbH. Carbo Tech was started in 1993 by Karl Wagner and Ernst Zürcher to produce composite parts for racing and the automotive industry. The company expanded slowly, but in 2006 Zürcher was killed in a gliding accident and his shares were taken over by Ernst Wustinger, who had previously been the Chief Executive Officer with Pankl, who had bigger ambitions and began to develop more quickly in F1. Although not much publicised in F1 circles, Carbo Tech signed a contract last year to build McLaren’s composite monocoques which will be used in the MP4-12C road car.

The team has already signed up Narain Karthikeyan with backing from Tata, but it remains to be seen who will be the other driver. Our sources say that the team would love to get its hands on Tonio Liuzzi, but still needs money and thus may have to opt for a pay-driver unless Liuzzi’s drive is paid for by Force India. This would be a logical resolution for all concerned, but cannot happen unless there is cash up front.

“The second driver has not been decided yet,” says Kolles. “We have to make sure that we are making the best choice. We are making progress in all areas which is positive, working very hard, and the results will be shown and be announced very soon.”