The Hispania Racing Team has denied a Spanish media report that its Formula 1 team is for sale.
Spain's Diario AS reported that last month's termination by Toyota of a planned supply of chassis for the team had left Spanish-based HRT with "no car, no base, no drivers (and) no sponsors," and that majority owner Jose Ramon Carabante and his equity partners had decided to sell off the team. However, an HRT spokesman told Reuters, "The team is not on sale; we are working for 2011.
"Carabante is working on getting sponsors and investors. One Spanish group is interested in joining the team but things are not so easy nowadays in the world," she added.
The team, which competed with Dallara chassis in its first grand prix season, had attempted to do a deal HRT to use the mothballed Toyota F1 team's planned 2010 car as the basis for next year's challenger – as well as having use of certain facilities at the Toyota factory in Cologne, Germany. However, Toyota Motorsport announced on Nov. 15 that the plans had been called off because scheduled payments had not been made.