http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1758 ... ar-on-eBayMANAMA (Reuters) - Pirelli are planning to sell off a 2011 HRT Formula One car in a charity auction on eBay because nobody in the Italian tyre company wants to use it for promotional purposes.
Pirelli acquired the engine-less car last season after the Spanish-based tail-enders folded with debts still outstanding.
The tyre maker had intended to repaint it in their black and yellow colours and put it on display at dealerships and company events.
"There doesn't seem to be a lot of enthusiasm, it's a bit of a shame really," Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery told Reuters at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday.
"Our marketing department said nobody seems to want to use it. So I said let's put it on eBay for charity.
"We're trying to find a category on eBay for an F1 car and we'll probably run it (the auction) for quite a few months to see what money we can raise for charity," he added.
Five other HRT cars, also without engines or gearboxes, were bought for re-sale by a Spanish auto breaker in February.
HRT's drivers in 2011 were Indian Narain Karthikeyan, Australian Daniel Ricciardo and Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi.
http://sidepodcast.com/post/pirelli-auc ... ay-charityIt's been just four short months since HRT went missing from Formula One, and it hasn't taken long for them to be forgotten about. The battle of the backmarkers continues with just four participants, and the first session of qualifying is actually more interesting without them.
One company trying to forget the team but currently struggling to do so is Pirelli, who have a 2011 HRT F1 chassis on their hands, and want to shift it. The tyre manufacturer bought the car in February of this year after the assets of Hispania Racing were sold off.
The plan was to use the car as a display model, rebranding it in the corporate Pirelli colours of black and yellow and sending it to showrooms and motorsport events around the world. However, as Paul Hembery noted this weekend, no one within the company seems all that bothered about spicing up the old HRT car.
Paul Hembery, Motorsport Director, Pirelli wrote:There doesn't seem to be a lot of enthusiasm, it's a bit of a shame really. Our marketing department said nobody seems to want to use it.
Instead of holding on to an ancient chassis - minus the engine and gearbox which were returned to their respective owners Cosworth and Williams - Pirelli have decided to pass on the carbon fibre once more, this time by putting it up for auction on eBay!
Hembery says the money raised will go to charity, but he also points to a unique problem when selling modern Formula One assets on the internet.
Paul Hembery, Motorsport Director, Pirelli wrote:We're trying to find a category on eBay for an F1 car and we'll probably run it for quite a few months to see what money we can raise for charity.
Of all the issues that HRT have been subjected to in their short Formula One history, not fitting into any eBay category is fated to be their last.
If you have a bit of cash to spare, you could purchase yourself some genuine carbon fibre as driven (and most likely crashed) by Narain Karthikeyan and/or Daniel Ricciardo and/or Tonio Liuzzi.
Well, I have a new sigquote!
Re: The HRT thread
