HRT: Destined to Fail Part 1
In this three part series, I will explore the fortunes of the HRT formula one team. This post will also be on Drivetribe, so give it a like there as well.
HRT intended to enter F1 in 2010 because a budget cap was said to be introduced for the 2010 season. This would reduce the money spent on the car to $30 million. For contrast, the previous season, Red Bull spent over $40 million in the season. HRT, along with 4 other teams, scrambled to assemble a team. However, the budget cap never happened because Ferrari threatened to quit the sport.
HRT was one of five teams that had been granted entry into F1 for the 2010 season(I won't discuss the rest) and they were also one of the 3 teams that actually raced in F1. Originally, the team was purchased by a consortium led by ex-F1 driver Adrian Campos and it was going to be called Campos. However, the team didn't have much money as it had been created from a GP2 team. Dallara was the team building the chassis and the team also secured a supply of Cosworth engines. Before the season had even started, the ownership changed and the money was constantly drying up, causing Dallara to slow down on the car build due to pending payments.
This left HRT in a pickle because they had to get the car assembled very quickly. They didn't do it. The first time the F110 hit the track was in the first practice session at Bahrain. This meant that Bruno Senna only ran for 3 laps in the first practice session. Chandok's mechanics weren't even able to attach the engine to the gearbox, so he didn't run in the first practice session. This left the team very unprepared and it showed, as both cars qualified on the back row. Bruno Senna, the faster of the two, was 8 seconds slower than polesitter Sebastian Vettel. In the race, the teams lack of experience showed as both their cars retired before half distance.
However, a sudden scramble to get some funds meant that HRT was able to qualify and Karun Chandok gave them a 14th place finish in Australia. Unfortunately for HRT, this was as good as it got. They never finished higher than 14th. Chandok was classified 14th in Monaco, while Senna took another 14th in Korea.
The rest of the season was a barrage of DNFs and bottom 5 finishes, cementing the team's reputation as a backmarker team. They never had enough money to update their car throughout the season, eventually finishing 11th with no points, only beating the Virgin Racing team. They normally qualified on the last two rows of the grid and only ever gained positions if a number of cars retired.
The team also had to run pay drivers because they sometimes didn't even have enough money to get their cars on the track. However, these drivers were worse than their normal drivers, who weren't bad drivers, but they were driving in machinery that was created at the last minute(literally). Sakon Yamamoto was the first of two pay drivers. He raced for 7 races, starting at Silverstone with a 20th place finish and recorded a best finish of 15th in Korea, making that the best ever result for HRT as a team. Christian Klien drove for the team for 3 rounds and his results were worse than Yamamoto's, with a DNF at Singapore, 22nd in Brazil and his best result being 20th in Abu Dhabi.
So, with their first season over, HRT could look back and identify the problems they had. The driver situation was a mess and their drivers were just not good enough. The car was a mess and the fact that it was first assembled right before the start of the first race weekend also suggested that the team wasn't ready to enter Formula 1 yet. So, the team got a less than deserved rest.There was talk of potential sponsorship from Tata and things were looking better. With this in mind, 2011 could only get better right?
(Spoiler Alert, it doesn't).