Toni Cuquerella, new Technical Director or HRT Formula 1 Team

Bangalore, 2 April 2012: With the first Spanish F1 outfit, doing a fantastic job at the rain-hit Malaysian GP with Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan showing his skills as a “RainMaster”, the development of F112 car becomes pertinent with the allotted testing time arriving in a month’s time. Before the Formula One World Championship moves to Europe, the team has to bring in developments to sustain their growth and the technical team becomes very important. After struggling to qualify at the inaugural Australian GP under the 107 per cent pace rule, the team said “Mission Accomplished” once they qualified at Sepang the next week on April 24, Saturday. Against all expectations, the car which was never tested in rain did a full run. Both the cars finished the race without any major hiccups despite the race being stopped for 51 minutes due to heavy downpour which made visibility unsafe for driving.

In this direction, the HRT team has made an announcement on Monday that Engineer Toni Cuquerella assumed on April 2, in the role of Technical Director of HRT Formula 1 Team. Cuquerella, besides being at the head of technical development, will continue to exercise his role as the maximum figure of engineering on the track.

Since Geoff Willis left the team in September of 2011, the position of Technical Director has not been occupied. The decision was then made for the development of the F112 to take place at the team’s technical office in Munich, at the hands of Holzer Group and the Chief of Aerodynamics, Stephane Chosse, under the supervision of the, until last February, Technical Coordinator Jacky Eeckelaert.

With the F112 put on the track, it’s now time to work on its development and evolution and so, the naming of a person to lead this project is necessary. And no one better than Toni Cuquerella, with his experience in Formula 1 and his praiseworthy work at the fore of HRT, to take it on.

The appointment of the Spanish engineer at the head of the technical department is a new step in the new management’s desire to centralize and take control of all the activities related to the design and development of the car. This will optimize the coordination of the different departments, helping to meet the set targets, and also rationalize resources.

Toni Cuquerella, Technical Director: “The role of Technical Director implies a great amount of responsibility in terms of coordination and decision making. That’s why I’m very proud that the management considers me to be the most adequate person to carry it out. Until now there was a lot of dispersion from within the technical team and that had its repercussions in the concept and quality of the F112. My priority is to solve the current car’s problems to then develop it to its maximum potential, whilst also unifying and expanding the technical department, but I’m confident that we have a good work base and a clear direction to advance and have a good project for the future”.

Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Principal: “Toni Cuquerella has been a key figure in the team since its inception and, above all, in this new stage. The transition from the previous project to this one hasn’t been easy and a lot of work has been carried out that without vital figures such as him wouldn’t have been possible. The position of Technical Director was vacant and the development of the F112 was carried out at the technical office in Munich. But now, with the car already on the track, it was important to take control and count on someone influential at the head of the technical office. And because of his experience, judgment and knowledge, Toni’s profile fitted in perfectly”.

Profile

Date of birth: 14th of April 1973

Place of birth: Gandia, Spain

Nationality: Spanish

Antonio Cuquerella was born in Gandía, Spain 38 years ago. He did a degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Universidad Politécnica of Valencia.

In 1999 he had his first role as a race engineer for Campos GP at the Open Nissan. After this he worked in various national and international motorsport categories before becoming Chief Engineer of the Toledo WTCC and Leon WTCC projects at SEAT Sport.

In 2006 he arrived in Formula 1 as a race engineer for Super Aguri F1, where he spent two years before moving to BMW Sauber F1 Team, acting in the same role with driver Robert Kubica.

Towards the end of 2009 he decided to take a risk and back Adrián Campos in a project to establish a new Spanish team in Formula 1, becoming the Chief Race Engineer for Campos Meta. Since the team’s first season, Toni has been the Chief Race and Test Engineer and has been a key figure both in the early days and this new stage of HRT and now he assumes an even more important role as the Technical Director.

ends/David/HRT release