HRT F111 launch – first pictures

2011 F1 cars

February 8, 2011 at 8:11 am by
310 comments

HRT have revealed the first pictures of their 2011 F1 car, the F111.

Team principal Colin Kolles said: “The F111 represents a significant step forward for Hispania Racing.

“We have made a big improvement for starting our second season in Formula 1 and what you see in our new car confirms Hispania Racing´s commitment to F1.”

The F111 was designed by Geoff Willis and Paul White. The team confirmed it will have an adjustable rear wing. However it will not have a Kinetic Energy Recovery System.

HRT aim to run the car for the first time in the pre-season test at Bahrain which begins on March 3rd.

Team president Jose Ramon Carabante said: “We feel really proud of the car our drivers will run this forthcoming season.

“Despite a challenging first year, we managed to finish on the 11th position in the World Constructors Championship. Now, we are very pleased to introduce the first specification of the F111, which means a huge design-effort from our side.

“This is only a first step as we are planning several updates during the season.”

The car’s distinctive livery was designed by Daniel Simon of Cosmic Motors. He said, “I miss fearless visual statements and large beautiful numbers on today’s racing cars.

“Playing with the restrictions of what you can do to a complex F1 body is fun. There are many don’ts, but I found a way to lay courageous racing essence on the car.”

However aside from sponsorship from Tata, thanks to new driver Narain Karthikeyan, the F111′s bodywork features few sponsors.

Instead the bodywork shown includes the messages: “This could be you” and “This is a cool spot”.

2011 F1 cars


Browse all 2011 F1 cars articles

Images © Motioncompany

Read more: 2010 F1 season | 2011 F1 season | F1 Pictures | HRT F1

Advert | Go Ad-free

310 comments on HRT F111 launch – first pictures

1 2 3 4 … 8
  1. Avatar Image

    explosiveface (@explosiveface) said on 8th February 2011, 8:27

    This is a surprise. This livery is a massive improvement, but the red isn’t a great colour.

    Reply

  2. Magnificent Geoffrey said on 8th February 2011, 8:29

    I have about fifty quid in my shoebox upstairs, what do you think the chances of getting my goldfish image on the side-pod of that car are?

    Reply

  3. Superted666 said on 8th February 2011, 8:29

    I actually really like it, even if it wont be very fast!

    Reply

  4. Burnout said on 8th February 2011, 8:31

    I like it. Kinda like a modern interpretation of the ’60s Honda livery with a chequered flag motif at the back. Hope they can get some sponsors soon and none of them force their corporate colours onto the car. I’m quite glad the Tata logos aren’t in blue.

    Reply

  5. owain bright said on 8th February 2011, 8:34

    that is absolutely vile.

    Reply
  6. Avatar Image

    Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 8th February 2011, 8:35

    I wonder how much an F1 Fanatic logo on the rear wing endplate would cost me? After all it is such a cool spot…

    Reply
  7. Avatar Image

    smifaye (@smifaye) said on 8th February 2011, 8:35

    That’s gonna win the Championship that!

    Reply
    • Avatar Image

      ajokay (@ajokay) said on 8th February 2011, 8:49

      Even if it doesn’t, at least they’ll see the chequered flag at every race…

      They seem to have lost their ‘Spanish’ identity in the transition, but this new livery is really nice.

      I wonder if they’d change the colours of the red blocks if a company with, say, green or yellow as their corperate colours wanted to sponsor a certain part of the car.

      Reply
  8. Avatar Image

    GeeMac (@geemac) said on 8th February 2011, 8:41

    I actually really like the livery, the “this is acool spot” stuff is actually quite clever. I don’t know whether Bernie would consider it “getting the begging bowl out” though!

    Reply
    • Avatar Image

      McLarenFanJamm (@mclarenfanjamm) said on 8th February 2011, 8:49

      I don’t think Bernie can tell the teams what paint job they give their car… yet ;)

      Reply
    • Avatar Image

      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 8th February 2011, 8:49

      Yeah that’s what I thought…

      Reply

      • BasCB said on 8th February 2011, 8:56

        About being clever or Bernie being not amused?

        The team might be telling him to put something in the beggin bowl here. Just to stop it being embarressing.

        Reply

    • Hamish said on 8th February 2011, 9:33

      Regardless of finances, favouritisms and what not its a rather well presented car.

      Reply

      • BS said on 8th February 2011, 10:58

        True, it actually makes me more sympathetic towards this team, although I’ve always been in favor of the new bunch, HRT was very embarrassing at times. Not least due to their dull livery, which they’ve remedied (and some).

        But they’re supposed to be the underdogs fighting for the respect of the bigger teams. Lotus was always the best of the new guys, but the truth is against all expectations not only did all the new teams complete the first season, in two weeks time all three teams will have tested their 2011 cars.

        None of the new teams went the ‘easy’ way and went out to buy an existing team. I think they’re increasingly badass, let’s hope this years HRT will be closer to both the Virgin and Lotus and the lot closer to the rest. :)

        Reply

    • LuvinF1 said on 8th February 2011, 14:58

      I like the message they put in front of the side pod air intake in the last photo.

      Reply

  9. Dev said on 8th February 2011, 8:42

    i like the new colors, far better than last year. i’d like to add that it’s insane to compare them to any established team… they came in 11th last year and that too w/o any upgrades on the car. I hope they do well this year F1 needs small teams too.

    Reply

  10. MadMalc said on 8th February 2011, 8:43

    Bloomin ‘eck – it looks amazing – from dullest to best looking car on the track in one step!

    Reply
    • Avatar Image

      Adam Tate (@adam-tate) said on 8th February 2011, 9:24

      I agree, it’s nice to see a small team having the guts to pull this off.

      I wish the rest of the grid could learn a lesson from this. One: how to have a decent livery. And two: how to not be so serious.

      Also, I love the bigger numbers, I wish more teams would do that, or the regs would change so we could get bigger numbers on multiple parts of the car like the golden era of racing. It makes the car look like a real racecar instead of a corporate powered land rocket.

      Reply

  11. Hare said on 8th February 2011, 8:45

    Actually, this is a really nice livery, the sort of livery a car down the order needs to get attention for itself… There’s lots of detail in it, so the more you look at it, the nicer it gets.

    The humour in the ‘This could be you’, shows they got a sense of humour and don’t mind advertising the fact they really need money!! There’s a lot of space left on that thing.

    Tata, is a solid backer.. so.. hopefully that will help attract others who are thinking about it to come forward.

    Reply
  12. Avatar Image

    barkun (@barkun) said on 8th February 2011, 8:46

    Livery is certainly a step forward (doing worse than last year was quite difficult)

    at a first glance was happy to see the team found some sponsors, only to realise they are not sponsors at all -
    not a fan of Kolles’ way of doing stuff but dont like to see another team disappear, no matter how small, so i hope they do get some backing by the start of the season

    Reply
  13. Avatar Image

    Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys) said on 8th February 2011, 8:50

    I don’t actually mind it. It at least looks like a Formula 1 car and not a basic model made out of balsa wood. Having seen Simon’s work from the Cosmic Motors book (which I see gets a mention), it’s very clearly designed by him; in fact, it looks very similar to the one on the front cover.

    I especially like the way the car’s decals so far as THIS COULD BE YOU and YOUR LOGO HERE and THIS IS A COOL SPOT. Part of me hopes they race like that, not because they won’t have a sponsor to their credit, but because it would be a delightful (albeit unintentional) parody of commercialism in the sport.

    Reply

    • BasCB said on 8th February 2011, 8:59

      Have some anarchist and anti-globalisation NGO put in the money to sponsor the non-comercial idea!

      I agree with you. On the one hand I would love them to find some sponsors like this on the other hand seeing the car race with cool spots showing is quite something.

      In a way Honda did a bit the same when they went with the earth car idea, only this is a lot simpler, makes more sense and certainly looks better.

      Reply
      • Avatar Image

        Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys) said on 8th February 2011, 10:05

        Honda’s Earth Car experiment betrayed the way things were so very wrong at Brackley. Jenson Button had a fantastic 2006, picking up his maiden win and scoring more points than anyone else in the final half of the season. And with Lucky Strike leaving the team ahead of 2007, they should have been a sponsor’s dream. But then never found anyone willing to commit. Something was seriously wrong with the team at the time.

        Reply

  14. Abuelo Pal said on 8th February 2011, 8:50

    Thnx for some great photos this morning Keith, well done again. Virgin launch yesterday was a disaster for the common fans sat here waiting, but F1 fanatic pulled it through.
    HRT have spent a lot of time and money to improve their image and it appears to have worked. I see you have lots of armchair critics who probably haven’t a clue as to how to even start an F1 team. So idiots aside, give credit where its due, the 3 2010 rookie teams have all come through at the start this year and have provided what looks to be a serious entry into the 2011 season. We shall see just how serious after the first few races, when the times will show how much closer or further away they are from the established big boys.
    Good luck to all the teams this year, and especially to the lower budget chaps, keep it in the zone!

    Reply

  15. Michael Aglas said on 8th February 2011, 8:53

    Looks the same like the old hrt…

    Reply

    • Abuelo Pal said on 8th February 2011, 9:02

      you should have gone to specsavers

      Reply

      • Michael Aglas said on 8th February 2011, 9:07

        They said at HRT it will be a completly new car… but there is just another painting…

        airboxes looks same then last year, the nose… just the wings seems to be different.

        Reply
        • Avatar Image

          GeeMac (@geemac) said on 8th February 2011, 9:27

          That depends on who you believe. Karthikeyan said it would be all new but Kolles said it would be the F110 with a Williams rear end.

          Reply
1 2 3 4 … 8

Add your comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All comments must abide by the comment policy. Comments may be moderated.
Want to post off-topic? Head to the forum.
See the FAQ for more information.