HRT will not run in last day of Barcelona test
2011 F1 testing
Vitantonio Liuzzi, HRT, Barcelona, 2011
HRT say they will not run their car in the final day of the F1 test at Barcelona.
A spokesperson told F1 Fanatic: “We have covered our program today, so we are not driving tomorrow.”
HRT have run three different drivers during the test: Narain Karthikeyan, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Giorgio Mondini.
The team planned to run their new F111 at the next test in Bahrain. But there are doubts over whether that test will go ahead.
2011 F1 testing
- Young Drivers Test Day 3 in pictures
- Vergne completes third day on top in Abu Dhabi
- Young Drivers Test Day 2 in pictures
- Vergne stays quickest on second day of test
- Italian F3 pair complete Ferrari test
- Jean-Eric Vergne leads first day of young drivers test
- 2011 F1 testing diary part four: Barcelona
- McLaren cover least test distance with new car
- Rosberg: Mercedes are “on the up”
- Second Barcelona test day 5 in pictures
Image © Motioncompany
TFLB said on 20th February 2011, 17:31
It’s ridiculous how everyone criticizes HRT, no matter what the team do or say. Why does everyone assume that they know more than the team themselves? If they have covered their programme, they have no reason to run tomorrow. It would just be a waste of money.
DavidS (@davids) said on 20th February 2011, 18:04
Everyone criticises HRT because they frequently do dodgy stuff like this.
Firstly, unless they happen to have stumbled upon an utterly dominant car that’ll win every single race this year, they need to do more testing. To say that they have completed their program already indicates that they didn’t bring enough to do, their goals aren’t particularly high, and they don’t have that drive to achieve results that should be a feature in all racing teams.
Patting yourself on the back when you are the slowest car on the grid is a sign of a deeply troubled team.
TFLB said on 20th February 2011, 20:10
It’s the old car, so they had plenty of time to test everything they needed last year. If it were the new car they were testing, I would agree with you.
Randy said on 20th February 2011, 20:21
Even if the car is last years the drivers could certainly benefit from the mileage. Not knocking the team but this has to be viewed as a financial decision.
TFLB said on 20th February 2011, 21:50
I never said it wasn’t financial. I just don’t think it’s a sign of impending doom for the team.
taurus said on 20th February 2011, 17:34
I dont get all this small team bashing, Minardi fiddled around at the back for 20-odd years and never got the amount of stick Hispania are getting. If they manage to score a point this year everyone will go “wow, well done Hispania, how great the little team managed to score a point, etc etc”.
Plus they beat Virgin last year (sort of).
TFLB said on 20th February 2011, 18:02
Probably the reason for Minardi not getting as much stick is that for the first years of their existence the internet was not really widespread or well developed, so there were no sites like this where people could share their bashing with the world.
GeeMac (@geemac) said on 20th February 2011, 18:48
The point with Minardi was that they were actually dogged lower midfield runners and as other teams (Larousse, Scuderia Italia, Simtek, Forti, Coloni et al) fell by the wayside they still managed to carry on regardless. They ran their team on an absolute shoestring and turned up at every race and test for the joy of competing in F1. I am as die hard an HRT/Independent Team fan as you will ever see, but I get the sense that the management of HRT just can’t be bothered anymore and are just looking to palm the team off to someone else.
Minardi were never like that…they were racers above all else.
HRT NEED to work on the car tomorrow to ensure they stay ahead of Virgin and stay within 107%, and while they are relaxing tomorrow Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari will be improving their cars and moving that 107% mark ever so slightly further away…
Shimks said on 20th February 2011, 19:12
That’s a very good point about the 107% margin shifting ever further away.
JUGNU said on 20th February 2011, 17:34
Worrying signs. Seems like they are disappearing.
JUGNU
Sangeen Khan said on 20th February 2011, 18:01
Never in the history of Formula1 have we seen a team as prepared for the new season as HRT
Tiomkin said on 20th February 2011, 19:45
HRT will most probably not do any real racing. The 107% will keep them in the garage. So what is the point in wasting money circling the drain?
Todfod (@todfod) said on 20th February 2011, 20:10
Whats the point in participating in F1 then? They should just pack their bags and leave
Tiomkin said on 20th February 2011, 21:05
Ask the idiots who reintroduced the 107% rule. It is designed to stop the lesser teams racing or improving.
Bookgrub said on 20th February 2011, 23:33
No, it’s designed to stop teams who aren’t competitive from running around the track pointlessly.
The good news for teams like HRT is that they generally have a lot more ‘low hanging fruit’ available from their aero and mechanical packages. If they can get close to 107% early on, they should be able to close the gap a reasonable amount.
People forget what a huge gap 7% can be. Spa Francorchamps, for example, has a lap record of 107.263 seconds on the modern layout. 7% of that is 7.51 seconds. That’s an absolutely massive gap, and I don’t think any modern team will have serious difficulty getting that close.
wasiF1 (@wasif1) said on 21st February 2011, 1:09
They are making things even worst for themselves.
Oliver said on 21st February 2011, 7:00
Their plan was to evaluate two drivers which they have accoplished.
At a certain point it is of no benefit to test an old car, built to a different regulation, with new tyres that will operform differently when the car is changed.
Darren said on 21st February 2011, 9:58
There has always been a culture of bashing the little guys in F1. Everyone in HRT have the same passion for f1 as anyone in the big teams, they probably work even harder with limited facilities and resources.
Here’s an idea, lets just ban every team except Ferrari, Red Bull,Renault and McLaren coz those teams are cool and have lots of money.
Lets make fun of the small teams with no sponsors until they disapear! Let’s admit it Williams are on the way out dont support them. All the new teams are just fly-by-nighters so forget them!
I’m here to support F1, if I wanted to read everything negative and every scandal and every conspiracy theory I’d go to Pitpass.com.
Todfod (@todfod) said on 21st February 2011, 11:41
A lot of us here support the underdog. I always liked Minardi for its effort and spirit, and have been a supporter of Force India right from day one. Toro Rosso taking a race win in 2008 was definitely the highlight of they year for me.
HRT on the other hand doesn’t show any promise. If you are entering the pinnacle of motorsport, you have to ensure you get into it with a plan. HRT didn’t organise their funding, direction, future plans, driver lineups, car design, testing schedules etc. Ive only been watching F1 for a short period of time (94 season onwards), and I haven’t seen a team more disorganised and clueless than HRT.
So I hope you understand why everyone doesn’t support HRT with the same enthusiasm as you do.
Gty said on 22nd February 2011, 3:09
I might have missed it but why are the running an old livery?