Sunday, March 13, 2011

HRT F111 unveiled but was not able to test the car

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Hispania Racing Team HRT launches their 2011 challenger, F111 on Friday, 11th March



Hispania have become the final Formula 1 team to unveil their 2011 car, on the penultimate day of pre-season testing.

The team, who were new to the sport in 2010 and were the slowest on the grid, hope to take a step forward.

The new car has been designed by a team led by Geoff Willis, a highly experienced F1 engineer formerly with Williams, Honda and Red Bull.

Driver Vitantonio Liuzzi, who joins as team-mate to Indian Narain Karthikeyan after being dropped by Force India, said: "What makes us think that we are in good shape is that also last year, with critical conditions, the team was really reliable and the car was really reliable. And it was just a problem of speed.

"On the downforce side we are already much better than last year so we just have to hope that in terms of reliability we can copy the performance of last year.

"So, I have to say that I was surprised because there were some good people in the team who understand a lot about F1 - technicians, and engineers. It makes things more promising.

Karthikeyan added: "Obviously we are going to get very limited time in the car. We are under no illusion that Australia will definitely be tough... the reliability is going to be the biggest question mark for now."

F1 has re-introduced a rule that dictates drivers have to get within 107% of the pole position time to qualify for the race.

But Kolles told Reuters news agency he was confident the team would have no problem complying with that requirement.

"I think that this car is quicker than our old car and our old car was not (outside) the 107% rule," said Kolles.

"The data we have is that the car is better than last year's... it's completely aerodynamically modified.

"The others have lost a little bit, we have gained a little bit so let's see where we are."

Hispania's budget was tight last year, but Kolles said the way ahead was clear now: "We have a budget, the budget has been approved and we are working on this."

Hispania have done a deal to have the gearbox and rear suspension supplied by Williams, who use the same Cosworth engine as Hispania

Despite of Launching their car two days before the testing end, HRT was unable to test the new car on track and will go to Australia straight forward without testing.

Some of the parts of the car and dampers are not released in custom that forced Hispania team to forfeit their planned final run in Barcelona testing on Friday and Saturday.

Although, Drivers Narain Karthikeyan and Tonio Liuzzi have at least managed some testing mileage in the 2010 Hispania fitted with 2011 Pirelli tyres earlier in the winter.

It is in the similar way, as the HRT F1 team entered into Formula One in 2010, without testing before the first race in Bahrain, the Spanish team will not test its newly launched 2011 car.

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