HRT

Hispania

FIA Entry: HRT F1 Team
Car 22: Narain Karthikeyan
Car 23: Vitantonio Liuzzi
Engin:e Cosworth V8
Team Principal: Colin Kolles
Technical Director: Geoff Willis
Race Engineer Car 22: Angel Baena
Race Engineer Car 23 Richard Connell

Stats as of end 2010

First Entered 2010
Races Entered 19
Race Wins 0
Pole Positions 0
Fastest Laps 0
Driver World Championships 0
Constructor World Championships 0

Campos Racing

Having run cars in lower formulae former F1 driver Adrian Campos secured one of the 3 places for new teams in F1 for 2010. He commissioned Dallara to build a chassis and signed a deal to use Cosworth engines and Xtrac gearboxes. They also announced that Bruno Senna, nephew of Ayrton, would drive for them.

Struggling for funds, especially to pay for the Dallara Chassis, Campos was bought out by major shareholder in Campos Racing Jose Ramon Carabante and the team renamed Hispania Racing Team

HRT

The team’s financial problems meant they were unable to take part in any pre-season testing and arrived at the first race with Karun Chandhok partnering Senna in completely untried cars. Unsurprisingly both cars were somewhat off the pace and retired early on. By Malaysia reliability had improved, if not speed, and both cars finished.

Continuing financial problems meant both Senna and Chandhok were substituted for Sakon Yamamoto, at various races and at the end of the season Christian Klien was drafted in to try and move the team further up the grid. Despite their poor pace the team finished 11th out of 12 in the Constructors Championship on count back of minor placing’s.

2011

Financial problems continue to dog the team into 2011 and they again missed pre-season testing as the new F111 car wasn’t built in time. Jordan driver from 2005 Narain Karthikeyan is partnered by Force India refugee Vitantonio Liuzzi and the team continue with Cosworth engines.

 

[Bill Boddy]

According to http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/understanding_the_sport/8763.html KERS gives an advantage of 0.1 to 0.4 seconds depending on the circuit.

 

[RasputinLives]

According to http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/understanding_the_sport/8763.html KERS gives an advantage of 0.1 to 0.4 seconds depending on the circuit.

You think in the position HRT are in that if they have a system they might as well experiment with it this year. It can't leave them in a worse position can it? And if those stats are right the gains far out weigh the possible drawbacks.

 

[FB]

Unless the KERS breaks down all the time or stops the car. Can't imagine they designed the car with KERS in mind so retro fitting it would be very tough especially as they struggled to pass the various FIA tests with what they had built.

 

[RasputinLives]

In the article Josh posted there is a quote that reads:

"It is designed to carry KERS but in the short term we will not [run with it]. We don't think we're going to race with it this year."

Which is why I don't see what they'd lose by at least trying it at the mid season test or in P1 and P2

 

[sportsman]

I think its for the same reason as this.Kers is expensive.So is testing.And HRT arguably the team who really need the most testing cannot take advantage of it.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/99142 The HRT team has announced that it will not attend next week's test at the Mugello circuit.
The Spanish squad is currently relocating to its new headquarters in Madrid and said that it wants to focus on the relocation and on the new upgrade package that will be introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

 

[RasputinLives]

Yeah. Too me it looks like they're trying to establish a set up for themselves in F1 at the moment and that currently their just using the races as 'experience'. Seems like they are concentrating on the business side of things to make sure there is a HRT team in the future before they start working on car issues. Its a different approach but I guess the old phrase 'got to be in it to win it' comes into play.

 

[sportsman]

True enough.But they do get some income from FOM from the TV coverage and every little helps.

 

[gdeacon7]

An article on formula1.com states that HRT won't be participating in the upcoming Mugello test because they are focusing on moving to new headquarters in Spain. I can find some sympathy for a team that tries hard and fails, but these guys don't even take the opportunities offered to them. Of all the teams, they are the ones that need to make the most of testing and since their inception in 2010 they have been consistently unprepared for pre-season and mid-season testing.

 

[RasputinLives]

gdeacon7

As sportsman posted above they are chosing to establish their base of operations at their new home in Spain rather than test. whether this is a good idea or not I don't know. I'm sure they would argue that even by testing for the whole 3 days they are not likely to gain much on the pack but by setting up a base of operations to work efficently they are assuring that there will be an HRT team next year and that they won't have a repeat of the last two years where they haven't managed to produce their new car in order to test pre-season. Its a sensible if rather boring strategy and like you I'm a little dissapointed however if they get their new car out early before 2013 fully fitted with the Kers system they've bought off Williams and tested to the max I guess they'll be laughing.

 

[Galahad]

As Caterham have shown, if you can find the right driver testing can be profitable as well as informative. Where's Chanoch Nissany when you need him?

 

[Slyboogy]

gdeacon7

This move is much better in the long term for this team, I think they will rather have better results the up and coming seasons rather than just this season where they are just racing themselves.

 

[KekeTheKing]

sportsman

I'm not sure this has anything to do with finances. It's a testament of their pre-season disorganization and a recognition that they won't be moving up the grid anytime soon.

 

[RasputinLives]

KekeTheKing

I think this is one of those glass half empty/glass half full situations and it depends how you look at it.

I'd like to think that HRT are just piddling around until the new regs come in and then they're gonna spring a decent midfield car on us and shout "ner ner ner ner ner" but I completely understand the other point of view.

I mean lets face it even with all the tech and finance and PR pumped into Caterham they're still only now just about on the back of the midfield so what chance do HRT have? Maybe preparing for the future is the best way.

 

[teabagyokel]

As Caterham have shown, if you can find the right driver testing can be profitable as well as informative. Where's Chanoch Nissany when you need him?

I don't think that was particularly informative.

 

[RasputinLives]

So Dani Clos is in for Friday practice at the Spanish Grand Prix? Theres a shocker! I wouldn't be surprised if Karthekeyen came down with some sort of Spanish Flu bug and he ended up racing this weekend (or maybe in Valencia). It would certainly double their TV coverage.

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/278296/clos-set-for-practice-outing-at-barcelona/

 

[RasputinLives]

De La Rosa reckons the HRT will be on the pace of other cars this weekend due to the nature of the track. He reckons he brings it back down to driver skill. Seems very confident!

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/99745

 

[teabagyokel]

He reckons he brings it back down to driver skill.

Yeah, but that's why I thought HRT would suffer...

However, its worth remembering that Alguersuari was beaten on pace by both Loterhams last year. And there are Monaco specialists of course - Fisichella, Salo, Maldonado?

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

HRT look like they'll be staying with Cosworth engines next season after a top personel said the team wanted to keep things the same and become consistant for next season.

HRT are also likely to use Dani Clos for the young drivers test at Silverstone next week.

 

[RasputinLives]

So brand new floor for HRT this weekend shows signs the team are still developing probably bouyed on by the nice sprinkle of cash running Qa in P1 sessions is bringing in. With Karthkeyen's money on the wain I wonder if the chinese driver might be a race fixture next year probably much to the annoyance of Liuzzi and Clos!

 

[RasputinLives]

interesting talk from the HRT boss http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/103011

Firstly the whole customer car thing comes back up again but for me this more importantly is back up for Bernie's sudden plan to not have the engine changes in 2014 with the excuse of "what about us little teams"

The other stuff to come out of this is that PdR will def still be in a race seat next year but Karth's name was absent from all talk and that HRT thought of this as a building year apparently and are execting significant leap forwards next year. No word yet on whether they'll be running KERS but with Marussia running it you think they're going to have to.