After having replaced Karun Chandhok or Bruno Senna with Sakon Yanamoto in the last couple of races, there has been much speculation over who will be racing for Hispania after Formula One's four week break.
Many rich, and untalented drivers have been touted for the seat, such as the hapless former Minardi driver Alex Yoong, or former Super Aguri driver Yuji Ide. Even veteran F1 journeyman Giovanni Lavaggi is rumoured to have approached the team.
However Hispania rejected all these drivers, deciding to go for the richest and least talented driver of the lot: Jean-Denis Deletraz. The Swiss driver competed in three grands prix over the 1994/5 seasons for Larrousse and Pacific respectively. In his first race, he retired before being lapped ten times. Here's what Jonathan Palmer had to say on the matter:
Yes Délétraz, really, here having no business in Formula One. And demonstrating it there: he's spending all of his modest effort, frankly, keeping the car on the road. He's holding up Gerhard Berger there and has now lost a second on Nigel Mansell, in the Larrousse. This is, I'm afraid, one of the problems of the Grand Prix season - at the end of the year we do get one or two drivers being taken by people who've got more money than talent, and that's one example of it.
When racing for Pacific, Deletraz retired after 14 laps with cramp in his arm! However, Deletraz believes he is better prepared for F1 this time round, after having raced in the FIA GT1 Championship. "I will certainly get to the end of the race without cramp, I have been doing a lot of weights". Whether he gets lapped less than ten times remains to be seen.
