Ma Qing Hua to get HRT outing in Young Drivers Test

2012 F1 season

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Ma Qing Hua will appear for HRT in the Young Drivers Test at Silverstone in July.

The Chinese driver will have his first outing behind the wheel of the F112 during the three-day test.

Qing Hua joined the team’s driver development programme last month having won the 1600cc category of the China Touring Car Championship last year. He has previously competed in Superleague Formula, Spanish and British Formula Three, and A1 Grand Prix.

He has tested in the team’s simulator and tested Formula Three and Formula Renault 3.5 cars since joining the team.

Qing Hua said: “I’m very happy and fortunate to have the opportunity to drive a Formula 1 car at the Young Driver Test and do it with HRT Formula 1 Team.

“I’ve dreamed of this all my life and am aware of the great responsibility that comes with it as I’ll be the first Chinese driver ever to take part in the Young Driver Test. I’m very grateful towards HRT Formula 1 Team for this opportunity and the faith they have shown in me and I won’t let them down.

“I’m going to be the first Chinese driver at the Young Driver Test but I hope not to be the last one and for many to follow in my footsteps, thanks to the team’s driver development programme which is being very rewarding for me. I hope that with the backing of all my compatriots, both in China and elsewhere, the commitment and link between my nation and the pinnacle of motorsport grows stronger every day.”

Team principal Luis Perez-Sala said: “Over the last few weeks we’ve been working with Ma, as a part of our scheduled development programme, at the Valencia and Jerez circuits with different cars and we consider that he is ready to take part in the Young Driver Test that will take place in Silverstone.”

2012 F1 season


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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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18 comments on “Ma Qing Hua to get HRT outing in Young Drivers Test”

  1. Good for him, seems HRT at least have stable financing this year then!

    1. Right, because nothing says “stability” like an under-achieving Chinese pay driver.

      1. But money is money at the end of the day.

        Also, as we have seen, having a mediocre record in lower series doesn’t necessarily mean a bad F1 driver (Schumacher, Maldonado, Sutil, Kobayashi)

      2. As @craig-o writes, money would mean a lot towards stability for them. And the fact they can confirm him already (after having these things done last minute in the past couple of years) must mean a nice agreement on money they can count on.

        1. @bascb Yep. That’s what this says to me. They can actually make plans and look forward now, especially since their new factory just got built.

  2. I didn’t know there was going to be a young driver test at Silverstone, will it be open to the public?

    1. It was mentioned in the round-up a while ago. Most teams seem to be leaning towards it, apart from the Red Bull axis. I don’t think Silverstone have said anything about it being open to the public.

      1. And McLaren also.

      2. I can’t see why Silverstone can’t make it a public event, if it is popular enough. It would surely be something I wouldn’t mind going if it is not too dear. Would be nice to be able to go to an open track day, and see young drivers pushing as hard as they can, very twitchy, making the odd mistake here and there. Would also give a good read into who we think are the future stars of the sport, and not what the teams and media say “yeah, he’s gonna be amazing”, because as we have seen so far with a few drivers, they haven’t had the instant impact that the hype about them has promised, yet other drivers who were very quiet in lower formulae brought an instant bang into Formula 1.

        As a side note, would be a great place to organise an F1F meetup too!

  3. I see then that means we’ll miss the YDTs after the Grand Prix then :P

    So does this mean Silverstone has taken over Abu Dhabi as the YDT venue? Or will Yas Marina also get a YDT?

  4. Andy Redden (@andyredden-on-f1)
    23rd May 2012, 15:36

    I imagine he actually won a competition to see who had the most Yuan.

  5. I honestly can’t take HRT seriously until they stopped doing stuff like this. And fire Narian and get a proper driver.

    1. Doing what, developing drivers for their team? Even if he’s rubbish, is a TEST not the whole point to evaluate that? @jonathan102

  6. What about David Zhu? Hes doing reasonably well in F2, but I havent heard of this kid before. What the heck, HRT. No one will ever take this team seriously

  7. Well, first I was gonna bash people, but then I decided to look up this guy.

    Not very impressive I must say. He did win last years National Touring Car championship in China.

    He had plenty of years in European Formulas with no success, in 2008 he finished 18th in Spanish Formula 3, with 7 points and 7th as his best finish while one of his team mates got two wins and three 2nd places.

    Time will tell.

    Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghua_Ma

    1. But hey, he gets to drive a Formula 1 car!!!!!

      Now how many drivers out there in lesser Formulas wish such thing. He must be exited!

  8. Good for him and good for the team I say. However, as much as I appreciate HRT need the money he’s bringing, he doesn’t carry an awful lot of success so I hope they don’t hang on to him if they can’t move forward with him.

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