HRT driver lineup unclear for Suzuka
The struggling Spanish team earlier sent out a confusing message about its Suzuka campaign by declining to mention any of its contracted drivers in a pre-event press release.
Karun Chandhok, Bruno Senna, Sakon Yamamoto and Christian Klien have all occupied the two race seats at times in 2010.
Japanese Yamamoto was believed to have moved into a permanent role at HRT, but he was sidelined in Singapore two weeks ago with what the team described as food poisoning.
Austrian Klien stepped into Yamamoto's cockpit and impressed, while one of his personal sponsors took a prominent place on the roll hoop of the F110 car.
Asked to nominate HRT's race lineup for Suzuka, Kolles told Germany's motorsport-total.com on Tuesday: "We're planning with our regular drivers.
"They are Senna and Yamamoto," he said.
However, he declined to guarantee that will be HRT's lineup in Japan this weekend.
"You never know what's going to happen," said Kolles. "What happens if someone breaks a leg?"
10/05/10 (GMM) HRT on Tuesday did not reveal the identity of its race drivers for this weekend's Japanese grand prix.
Sakon Yamamoto, who earlier this year replaced team regular Karun Chandhok, sat out the recent Singapore round with what the struggling Spanish outfit said was food poisoning.
Reserve driver Christian Klien stepped into the cockpit, impressing with his pace despite admitting the Singapore outing was a "one-off".
The Austrian's Singapore GP teammate Bruno Senna has also sat out a race this year – July's British grand prix – amid speculation HRT is selecting its drivers based on their current financial endowments.
The uncertainty about HRT's Suzuka lineup was triggered on Tuesday, when the team's traditional pre-event press release did not mention any of the team's contracted drivers Yamamoto, Klien, Senna or Chandhok.
"The Spanish team is eager to keep on improving and showing another positive performance," read the statement.
The statement's only quote was attributed to boss Colin Kolles.
"After our unfortunate race in Singapore, we look ahead and want to bring both cars to the finish line again," he said.