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.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Do HRT join the ranks of the greats such as

• Coloni. (GP entries 1, for which they did not qualify.)
• Eurobrun. (GP entries 75, DNQ/DNPQ's 55.)
• Mastercard Lola. (GP entries 1, DNPQ 1.)
• Life. (GP entries 14, DNQ's 14)

And last but not least.

• Andrea Moda. (Formally Coloni, GP entries 16, DNQ/DNPQ's 15, DNF's 1)

 

[Brogan]

I don't think they're anywhere near as bad as that.
They have only failed to qualify about eight times in three seasons - with then being permitted to start at least half of those.

So their official record is:
Entries: 116
DNQ: 4

 

[Mephistopheles]

I think that HRT will be glad to know that they were not the worst of the worst...

 

[FB]

Without doubt, Mephistopheles, there have been much worse than HRT.

 

[Slyboogy]

Despite slating them in 2010-2011.

You've got to admire that they've done a good job considering their situation. Every year they had new owners, they missed testing every year, yet made it to the first race of the season with their cars, they may have not qualified in one or two of them.

They also beat Marussia two years in a row who have a better budget, have stability, better drivers, engineers and structure.

Add to that, they've been close to the pace of their rivals despite all the setbacks, they disappeared in the second half of this year due to money problems though.

They might have been the joke team of the grid, but like Minardi, put in a great effort despite their circumstances.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Also their cars were in fact faster than some of the championship winning cars of the past including Senna's McLaren I believe, which I find Qi...

 

[Mephistopheles]

Slyboogy Minardi were a great team not only because of their fighting spirit but also they were a stepping stone for drivers to get into F1 they introduced some great drivers not least of which was Fernando Alonso, I for one never saw Minardi as a joke in fact I was very disappointed when they stopped racing I think they were a great loss...

 

[Brogan]

Also their cars were in fact faster than some of the championship winning cars of the past

It's all relative though Mephistopheles.

What we mustn't lose sight of also is just how small the gap is between the front teams and teams such as HRT,
Four seconds may sound like a lot but over 4.3km, it's not really, is it?
That's on average less than 1 second per kilometre; essentially a slow eye blink.

Of course, in engineering and monetary terms, four seconds probably equates to £400 million.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Very true Brogan

 

[siffert_fan]

Actually, the team HRT most remided me of was Tecno, of the early 70s. They had something like 14 entries, a couple of DNQs and actually scored a point by taking a 6th, with, as I recall, Chris Amon aboard. Of course, scoring a point separates TEcno from HRT as does the quality of Amon vs the HRT drivers!

However, both were underfunded efforts with little development and underpowered engines, and neither did much but take up space on the grid.

 

[RasputinLives]

Ok. Who is the best driver HRT ever had?

I think its a toss up between Liuzzi and Klein. I'm going for Liuzzi.

I guess that shows how bad their drivers were.

 

[canis]

I think it is a shame that HRT aren't going to be around, I had managed to get together £25 and half a packet of wine gums I was going to offer them to let me have a drive next year

But seriously, any team where the largest form of investment comes from the drivers bringing money in is never going to be a long term viable project. The owners need to want to invest in the team and as has been proven over the years that investment is never going to give an instant return but will require many years of high levels of cash to start to get the team up the grid and the bigger sponsorship monies.

 

[Brogan]

But seriously, any team where the largest form of investment comes from the drivers bringing money in is never going to be a long term viable project.

Bad news for Williams then.

 

[canis]

Brogan Williams are not reliant on the money from their drivers just to exist, they use it to top up their sponsorship and company investment in each season. HRT had no money to speak of without their drivers paying for the seat, hence the reason in their first year they swapped drivers around depending on who gave them the biggest income for each race (sponsors of drivers will pay more depending on the local market of the race the driver appears in).

 

[teabagyokel]

I think its a toss up between Liuzzi and Klein. I'm going for Liuzzi.

Red Bull made the opposite decision.

 

[TN23]

HRT's best? I'll agree with Liuzzi, with a mash-up for second between Ricciardo and Klien. I thought Chandhok did ok too... whilst at HRT of course!

 

[Plutus]

Actually I would rate Klien higher than Liuzzi, considering his past performances. His performance in 2010 was impressive after all he did beat Senna with barely any F1 race experience for three years.
It wasn't an easy car to drive in 2010 and Senna had raced at all grand prixs with the exception of Silverstone.

 

[RasputinLives]

Yeah but Yamamoto also beat Senna in the same car. As did Chandock. So Senna really can't be rated that highly.

Liuzzi scored their highest ever finish with his 13th in canada beating both Marussias. So I think he gets it. Not that its much to shout about.

 

[Brogan]

HRT accused of misleading a supplier who confirms they went into liquidation a month ago.

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/news/12433/8322437/

 

[siffert_fan]

HRT's best? I'll agree with Liuzzi, with a mash-up for second between Ricciardo and Klien. I thought Chandhok did ok too... whilst at HRT of course!

I would rate Klein much higher. To me, Liuzzi never even showed that he was better than Scott Speed, and THAT is no endorsement of ability!