Feedback: your letters
After spending more than 20 years at the world’s biggest racewear brands, Ago Alberghino noticed an opportunity to offer something different. Now, his HRX brand is supplying his stylish, bespoke, handmade Italian race suits to motorsport’s biggest winners
An illegal car is an illegal car…
Your correspondents Messrs Lewis-crosby and Ritemann (5 August) seem to be confusing the application of the rules with emotion. An illegal car is an illegal car, and shouldn’t be allowed in the race, and a car from which the required measurements or samples cannot be gleaned is an illegal car.
It’s happened plenty of times before, James Hunt (Spain 1976), Alain Prost (San Marino 1985), and Lewis Hamilton (Spain 2012 qualifying) to name but three. Technical rules can’t be ignored because a driver entertains the crowd, otherwise chaos will ensue.
Also, the stewards have to remove the emotion from their adjudication on driving-standards incidents. They have to look at each incident in isolation, otherwise a different penalty would ensue depending on whether the driver(s) involved are in the lead of the race or championship, or at the back.
And while we’re at it, the only thing which“put another driver in hospital”was the rules. Max Verstappen appeared to be perfectly OK at the scene, but the mandated hospital visit would have been because the Fia-mandated G-metre on the car would have been triggered. Those are the rules, and that’s a good thing.
Phil Oakes
Portishead
…but penalise the team, not the driver
Further to correspondence in last week’s Autosport, Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification from the Hungarian GP due to the inability to extract a one-litre fuel sample from the Aston Martin does seem harsh. Would it not be more appropriate to penalise the team only, and not the driver, in situations like this? One correspondent suggested a fine for the team. Alternatively, points could be deducted, leaving the driver’s position and points intact.
Mark Gilbert
Portishead
A qualifying system that has to go
It must be possible to construct a mathematical model to maximise the chances of winning the Formula E title, but leading after the early rounds would probably not be a part of it. Some way to cycle through the“qualifying system that hurts the best performers”, as Matt Kew mentioned (Opinion, 29 July), would have to be devised. Not winning or even being in the top five of the championship at particular times may be the optimum.
This was made very clear by the qualifying positions of Sam Bird in the two London races. It’s ridiculous, of course, that racing drivers should need to hold back in order to get a better chance at the following event (Sam didn’t, but what if he had?).
The current qualifying system must be changed: may I suggest one version that would perhaps help? Continue as at present, but take the winner out of each group, and let them run-off for the top positions on the grid in a final shootout. That would offer a chance to qualify well regardless of the track conditions in their first run.
The only driver who could prove me wrong is Nyck de Vries (above), leader after round one: but what happened to him on round two? Two crashes due to low qualifying position. Watch him in Berlin: if he can win from the disadvantage of leading the championship, I shall honour him and withdraw my complaint.
Unless he does, the current series will produce a winner, but it will not, and cannot, produce a champion.
John Ashmole
Spalding
Technical rules can’t be ignored because a driver entertains the crowd, otherwise chaos will ensue PHIL OAKES
In the world of sport, what you wear is just as important as how you wear it – and a race suit is no different. It must protect the driver from danger, feel comfortable to wear, and provide the right mobility behind the wheel of a hugely fast racing car. Having developed racewear for thousands of successful racing drivers, HRX has tasted success across many different categories.
Established in 2012 by Ago Alberghino in Turin, HRX has evolved from a passion project into one of motorsport’s biggest racewear brands. With years of experience working with two of the largest motorsporting race equipment companies, Alberghino felt that on turning 50 he would launch his own and develop HRX’S unique approach to working with the consumer at the race track.
“I spent all my life in motorsport,” Alberghino says. “I was born with this need, and when I was young I started to race in the Renault 5 Cup. I decided it was the time to dedicate the latest part of my life to build something – and in nine years, we found our market. I think the fact that I’m really involved with motorsport, that I like motorsport, gives to me the right connection with our customer.”
HRX has enjoyed a particularly purple patch in motorsport of late. Together with United Autosports, it claimed victory in the LMP2 class of the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans, and provided racewear to 2021 Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves – who claimed his fourth Indy 500 victory driving for Meyer Shank Racing.
The Italian company has also enjoyed recent success in other championships, backing Ashley Sutton’s two British Touring Car Championship titles. Alberghino explains that the race service
HRX provides has been a significant part of converting teams and drivers to its line of products.
“We have teams that decided to work with us due to the quality of the material, and especially due to the service, and because we are speaking the same language,” he explains. “For me, all these team owners or team managers are not customers; we are friends with these people and we have a personal relationship talking about motorsport.
“I think the last two years, especially with Le Mans last year where United won LMP2, we’re doing a lot together. In the US where we are growing a lot, where this year Castroneves won the Indy 500 with our suit, I think it was the time to let the people know more about the roots of HRX.”
HRX, Alberghino explains, operates
like a race team; racewear companies after all do more than simply send off-the-peg overalls to a driver. Everything is tailored to fit the driver and, after the initial measurements are turned into a bespoke race suit design, HRX provides trackside service to ensure the driver continues to remain comfortable in their kit.
For Castroneves and his Meyer Shank team, HRX got a headstart on preparing for their Indy 500 entry by sizing up the driver and his crew at the Daytona 24 Hours race in January.
“We are going up and down by aeroplane to supply everything, all the time. We have people that follow the races with the drivers. For Helio, we started to size the team in Daytona. We took his sizes to make the perfect suit for him, so we started four months before.
“This month we will have Le Mans, and we will attend for more or less two weeks. We have to provide everything before the test day, because there is scrutineering and the photoshoot. If there is something that they need, we must be there. If there is something to adjust, we are able to adjust it for the day after – so this service for the big races is what we give daily to our customer.”
Alberghino also explained that HRX provides no compromises in delivering the best product it can to its racing teams. Developing lighter materials that keep the drivers cool and comfortable while also adhering to all Fia-mandated safety requirements is critical in racewear development, and HRX’S mantra has been to employ the best quality materials available in its products.
“The rule that we set at the start was that we must try to be one of the best. And there is only one way: to make no compromise in choosing the material that we are using to define our suits and other products. Our top level suit for professionals is called the Zero Icon, and the reason why we call it that is because of zero compromise.
“The key was not to make compromises in choosing material. The suit must be light and must have the best perspiration – these are the two key points. To provide these two roles, there is no reason to choose a low-cost material that could be similar in a technical degree, because in reality they have a big difference.”
Providing the right service with the right products is key for any company to be a success, and HRX is carrying that maxim into the world of motorsport with its range of bespoke and customer products. What you wear in motorsport is as important as how you wear it – and choosing the right racewear brand for you can help in both respects.