"Roll up, roll up! There's an HRT seat going for 2012. But please, you must form an orderly queue!"
Or so it would appear anyway...
When Jaime Alguersuari was given his surprise marching orders from Toro Rosso by the bosses at Red Bull, everything pointed towards him turning up at HRT. What better a situation for both parties? To have a young (he's still only 21) Spanish talent alongside the experienced veteran de la Rosa would be perfect you would have thought for HRT. Even more so with Jaime Sr being quite a wealthy and influencial guy in Spanish motorsport.
For these reasons new team principal Luiz Perez-Sala's responses to recent questions about a potential HRT-Jaime linkup are rather hard to fathom out.
When asked by Autosport's resident Spaniard Pablo Elizalde whether the team were considering Alguersuari for the second seat, Perez-Sala replied:
"The thing is that it has taken everybody by surprise. Nobody expected
it. I wouldn't have bet anything on that happening. So we are in pretty
advanced talks with other drivers. Until everything is done I don't want
to say anything, but it's going to be difficult."
So they weren't expecting Alguersuari to be available. That's fair enough - even Jaime himself thought he was safe at STR.
But why is it too late now, just because you're already talking to other drivers? How hard is it to pick up the phone to Jaime and offer him a drive (in exchange for some of his daddy's millions obviously)?
A Jaime (with budget) would be a far better option than anyone else available to HRT - and Jaime would be sure to take up the offer so that he can remain on the F1 grid with the hope of one day returning to the midfield.
Surely it is worth upsetting the driver(s) they are 'in pretty advanced talks with' in order to obtain one of, in my opinion, the most promising drivers around.
But clearly Jaime must join the back of the queue outside of the HRT office behind drivers, presumably, of the calibre of GP2 nearly-men Van der Garde and Clos.
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