Kolles bullish on Hispania performance

Kolles was drafted in by team owner Jose Ramon Carabante to ensure the team made it to the grid, following the financial troubles that previous team boss Adrian Campos faced.

Although the team is well behind on its preparations for the new season compared to Lotus and Virgin, Kolles is bullish about its chance of emerging as the best of the new teams by the end of the season.

The team confirmed that Karun Chandhok will join Bruno Senna in its line-up, with its Dallara-built car only due to hit the track at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

"I am excited by our driver line-up and the amazing effort and passion I have witnessed from our entire team to get us to this point," said Kolles during a team presentation in Murcia, Spain, on Thursday.

"We have all tools in our hands to become the most successful new team in the F1 paddock this year."

"There are always development and human issues within a team, but we are close to achieving our breakthrough in F1 and the coming season will be a massive learning curve for us working together.

"It would be a dream to win our first point in our first race, but we are focused on taking things one step at a time and building on our competitiveness as the season goes on."

Kolles said he was proud that the team had shown off its car for the first time in Murcia, where the outfit will be based.

"I am very pleased to use the Murcia site to unveil officially our car livery today, which reflects the Murcia identity," he said.

"Everything is now in place after an impossible race against time to register the team's name and I truly believe that we have an excellent platform to build on and move forward for a strong 2010 performance. Now, we need to work together. We need to learn together and keep developing as a team."

HRT F1 also confirmed that it has appointed respected engineer Jacky Eeckelaert to be its technical co-ordinator.