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Liuzzi confident HRT will prove itself

Tonio Liuzzi: "The numbers at the factory are really promising for a good start" © Sutton Images

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Tonio Liuzzi says the early signs are good for HRT ahead of the launch of its 2011 car and he is confident he has made the best choice open to him by joining the team.

HRT is planning to debut its new car on Friday afternoon if everything goes to plan, giving the team one and a half days of track time before the first race of the season in Australia. Last year the team did not arrive until the first race in Bahrain and was a perennial backmarker alongside Virgin and Lotus throughout the season.

Liuzzi said nothing could be guaranteed ahead of the car's first run, but he is sure it will be a big step on last season's F110.

"I think all the numbers at the factory are really promising for a good start," he told reporters. "We have to work a lot in the next couple of days if we are to put the car on the track on Friday and to understand a lot about the car and set it as good as possible. The downforce side we are already much better than last year, we just have to hope that with the reliability we can copy the performance of the team.

"There are a lot of people in the team that understand a lot about Formula One, technicians and engineers, so that makes things promising. We just have to work twice as hard at the beginning because we have to understand the car quicker. We just need to put all the parts of the puzzle together."

This year life will be made even tougher for the teams at the back of the grid with the reintroduction of the 107% rule. This will see drivers that are not within 107% of the fastest time set in the three qualifying sessions fail to make the grid. Last year HRT drivers would have fallen outside that bracket on 13 occasions, but Liuzzi is confident that won't be the case this year.

"I'm not fazed at the moment by worries that we will be out of the 107%," he added. "I think the team has developed hard and made good progress and it's an ongoing work."

Last year HRT employed pay drivers to supplement its budget and this year Narain Karthikeyan is brining Tata to the team. But when Liuzzi was asked if he was brining sponsorship to the team, he said: "It's a straight forward thing with the team. For sure the more [sponsors] that can come during the season the better it is."

He added: "Formula One is a difficult business; there are not many seats for a lot of drivers, especially in this age when Formula One is looking for sponsor money and there is an economic crisis. It's difficult to get what you want. But I'm happy because every team I joined grew up and became successful, so I'm really proud that on my side I always help development, give the right direction and that's one of the many points I really trust in myself.

"You cannot have everything you want all the time, because everybody would love to have the best car in the field and win every race but it's not possible."

With his new start at HRT Liuzzi has also changed his manager from Peter Collins to Enrico Zanarini, who is most famous for handling the careers of Eddie Irvine and Giancarlo Fisichella. But he said it was not due to a falling out and that he was still very close with Collins.

"It's nothing dramatic, I still have a really good relationship with Peter," Liuzzi added. "He's the person who convinced me to race, so for me he is like a second father. I just wanted to go for a different challenge. I changed teams, I wanted to have a different challenge and there is no bad feeling with him. I wanted to see a restart for 2011 and this was part of the things."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.