HRT: Destined to Fail Part 2

In this 3-part series, I am discuss(really, ridiculing) the poor fortunes of the HRT Formula 1 team.

The story so far: HRT managed to sneak onto the F1 grid with no preparation at all. Their best ever F1 result was 14th place at 3 of the races in the 2010 season. Also, it seemed as if the team would go bankrupt while simply transporting the cars from one circuit to another, so they had to sign 2 pay drivers near the end of the season. Despite all this, they didn't finish last in the championship!

So lets continue on this wonderful journey and carry on from where we left off. At the end of 2010, the executives at HRT sat down and came up with a strategy to rekindle the team. The first thing to do was to find a competitive car. At the end of 2010, the Dallara deal was cancelled and there were plans to use Toyota's unraced 2010 car. However, Toyota backed out of that deal because - surprise- HRT failed to make payments. So, the team had to reuse last year's car with a few updates (emphasis on few, important later). The second strategy was to hire new drivers. So, they hired two new drivers, Narain Karthikeyan and Vitantonio Liuzzi. Karthikeyan was hired because he brought sponsorship in the form of Indian Car Giant, Tata Motors.

So, with all this, HRT thought that they were finally prepared for the 2011 season. Except, they weren't. You remember how they used last year's car. Yeah, they failed to even qualify. Thurns out that they were their own killers. Due to how slow the 3 backmarker teams were, the FIA reintroduced the 107% rule, which meant that all drivers who didn't post a time which was within 107% of the polesitter's time will not make the start of the race. This meant that HRT failed to qualify for the first race in Australia. This was the first race of a season to forget for HRT in a season which was probably one of the worst that any team has ever had in F1. In a really bad year, the upshot was that they got their best ever finish, with P13 at the chaotic Canadian Grand Prix. But considering the chaos at that race, does it really count?

However, it was not all bad for the fairly terrible backmarker team. It gave 7-time race winner Daniel Ricciardo his F1 debut. However, it wasn't the greatest of debut seasons, with a best finish of 18th place at the Hungarian and Indian grands prix. The debut of a future star was probably the greatest thing that happened to HRT that season. Narain Karthikeyan was also a fairly decent driver, however he was dropped early in the season due to sponsors demanding Ricciardo be put in the car - and HRT really needed the support of sponsors. However, I have to say, I don't really know what they were thinking. Tata Motors was their main sponsor throughout the season and they decided to drop the driver who was sponsored by Tata Motors. However, HRT agreed a deal with Tata which allowed Karthikeyan to return for one race that season, his home race, the Indian Grand Prix.

For most of the season, the team raced without any major sponsors apart from Tata. While searching every nook and cranny of the internet, researching to find information about this article, I found a post on a social media website named facebook, which said that the car's side profile looked like a billboard advertisement, or like an empty template for a generic website template. And, I have to say, that person was absolutely right. However, I really liked the livery. It was really photogenic and it is quite a shame that their performance was so bad because I personally believe that they could've easily attracted sponsors if they had even an ounce of performance.

So, with another year over, HRT was having deja vu. They had again finished 11th in the championship and once again, they had to drop one of their drivers due to money problems. However, this time they had well and truly hit rock bottom. Even Virgin Racing had had improved results near the end of their season. Also, Torro Rosso announced in 2011 that they will sign Ricciardo for 2012. This meant that Karthikeyan would be brought back.

Surely, the only way from rock bottom is up right? RIGHT?