58 races, 56 starts, 32 retirements 7 drivers, 0 points. We know, we know, it makes a tempting purchase – well at least to a selection of Canadian and American investors it does.
The brilliantly named Scorpion Racing have apparently being thrashing out a deal to buy HRT and more importantly, its entry slots to the 2013 grid.
Scorpion (as they shall surely be called hence forth?) want to run a modified version of last year’s HRT chassis with a Cosworth engine coupled to a Williams gearbox. Which is, to be fair, exactly what HRT would be doing if they had gathered enough pennies and cents together in the last 3 months of last season…
What could possibly go wrong with this logic? They plan to move the Spanish outfit to the default home of aspiring F1 teams, Silverstone, and compete in the Australian Grand Prix on 17th March – 43 days time. Leaving lots of time for developing the quality race-winning package they plan on putting together – or at least a package that will scrape by scrutineering and get them into the pit-lane; again, just like HRT would if they had survived.
Things are apparently quite a long way down the road/track, with the organisation having received approval of some kind from Bernie Ecclestone – although he has since added that he feels that the timescales for the new team are slightly ambitious. Added to this, Scorpion may also struggle to make their case for entry, with a due diligence process having to be passed and issues over the closure of the 12th entry spot being closed post liquidation of HRT.
It could be nothing more than a pipe dream from some fanatical racing enthusiasts, but then they the best kind of people to get involved with the sport. Not any of this big investors from Spain, as the past three seasons have proven.
Want to know more about this possible saviour of HRT? Well, there isn’t much really.
After having a little look on a well known internet search engine (you all know the one), we found a few “Scorpion Racing” sites out there. The first one is a Canadian Motocross accessories company, which is now known as “Emperor Racing” thanks to a naming dispute with Pirelli (the tyre company has a Scorpion range, you see). How they still have the domain name is beyond us.
The other one is a racing team (yay!), and has experience in preparing racing cars (double yay!). The only downside is that they run a MGB. Which doesn’t exactly scream “pinnacle of motorsport” now, does it?
On the other hand, they do have an eerily similar colour scheme of white with gold and red, and have had drivers race for them under the names of Bob Steele and Dick Ebs. Surely, those are F1 names of the future too?
We for one hope they make it to Australia and do a Brawn GP, qualifying a second faster than everyone else, before romping off to win the Constructors and Drivers championship’s in their maiden season. But, what would F1 be without the dreams of others?
