Hispania chief blames drivers for team's problems

Colin Kolles says the team made improvements during its first season in Formula One, but the inexperience of his drivers was a significant problem.

Colin Kolles, the Hispania Racing boss, said the team made improvements during its first season in Formula One, but the inexperience of his drivers was a significant problem.

Hispania was one of three teams to join the grid last season, along with Lotus and Virgin. None of the teams scored a point.

In an effort to cut costs, Hispania employed four drivers over the course of the season, three of whom - Karun Chandhok, Bruno Senna and Sakon Yamamoto - had never competed in F1 before.

Only Christian Klien had previously raced in F1, and that was a few years ago.

"It was a difficult year, [but] we were the most reliable new team," Kolles said. "I think the only reason why we did not finish 10th is that teams like Lotus and Virgin had more experienced drivers during the whole season.

"Reliability was the first objective. We learned a lot and hope that from now on we can concentrate more on improving the performance."

Kolles has not decided who will drive the team's cars for next year. In fact, speculation persists as to whether Hispania will be on the grid at all due to their ongoing issues in terms of attracting funds. Despite that, Kolles said: "We are working to have a better package than last year.

"From my point of view, the season was not as good as we would have liked it to be in terms of performance and this has to improve.

"Obviously this depends on a lot of factors, but we are working to achieve our goals."