The HRT thread

[Peter]

The HRT looks quite graceful from the side.

Wouldn't it be great to just have one race where the conditions somehow were unexpectedly all in favour of HRT's strengths? I know they have no strengths, but I'm speaking hypothetically here. The last time I remember a backmarker surprising unexpectedly was Adrian Sutil's early drives in the rain for Spyker and Force India.

Giancarlo Fisichella, 2009 Belgian Grand Prix, Pole Position.

I can beat that: Nico Hulkenberg, 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix, Pole Position.

I admit, Force India's event was a bit more surprising to me, because the car that was at one point the slowest car on the grid, for the team that had yet to score their first points in F1, take pole position, under bone dry weather, therefore no luck involved, fair and square speed advantage over the rest.

[dr-baker]

Giancarlo Fisichella, 2009 Belgian Grand Prix, Pole Position.

I can beat that: Nico Hulkenberg, 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix, Pole Position.

I admit, Force India's event was a bit more surprising to me, because the car that was at one point the slowest car on the grid, for the team that had yet to score their first points in F1, take pole position, under bone dry weather, therefore no luck involved, fair and square speed advantage over the rest.

And don't forget that if Kimi's Ferrari did not have KERS, Fisi would probably have won that race too... Whereas the Hulk, incredible though he is ( ), had no chance of ever winning that Brazilian race.

[mario]

And don't forget that if Kimi's Ferrari did not have KERS, Fisi would probably have won that race too... Whereas the Hulk, incredible though he is ( ), had no chance of ever winning that Brazilian race.

That is true - in Brazil, everybody was asking when Hulkenberg would fall behind the front runners as it was clear that on pace alone he'd soon be passed, and he was passed pretty much immediately by Vettel and Webber. In Belgium, by contrast, Fisichella's pace was genuinely strong - he had been in the top 10 from the start of the practise sessions - so it was genuinely the case that both driver and car had come together for a freakishly good result.
Mind you, it could be pointed out that Sutil also had a decent enough showing in Italy - he lined up 2nd on the grid, and were it not for the combination of him botching his pit stop and Kimi's KERS, he probably would have taken a podium finish there too (not to mention that Liuzzi could have been right in the mix too if his gearbox hadn't broken).

I wonder if Fisichella still ponders whether switching to Ferrari ahead of that race was the best idea - I know that the lure of driving a Ferrari at Monza was irresistible in the end, even if the car of his dreams quickly turned into a nightmare. Yet, at the same time he knew he was throwing away a car that could have put him on the podium in Monza (Sutil was fastest in two of the three practise sessions and set the fastest lap of the race, so the car was definitely quick enough for a podium - and perhaps even a victory if the strategy worked perfectly).

[slowest_indian]

FP1 and 2 did not look good.

Who reckons they'll qualify? From todays running I'm going with no. And even if they do the cars won't last the race.
Worryingly it seems Marussia have a fair bit of pace already...

[cbbcisace]

Didn't look good did it

I don't think they will be racing on Sunday and congrats to Marussia

[AdrianSutil]

So what exactly has happened to HRT? Last week everyone seemed confident, what with them ACTUALLY shaking down a new car for the first time in 3 years. It seems traditional for them not to run at FP1, but what happened in FP2 for one car to be over 7 seconds outside 107% and the other not to run at all?!

[slowest_indian]

Hydraulics on both cars apparently.

De la Rosa sounding mighty peeved over the radio saying that the power steering wasn't working on the one lap he managed to do.
Although to be fair that is the first time his car has been fired up. They really are looking poor at the moment though.
If Virgin are as quick "out of the box" as they seem to be HRT have got a lot of catching up to do..

[Klon]

De la Rosa sounding mighty peeved over the radio saying that the power steering wasn't working on the one lap he managed to do.

It's Trulli's career - it was "reborn" as De La Rosa's

[Pointrox]

I'm starting to lose faith in HRT.
I'm far from saying they're hopeless, but for HWNSNBM's sake - Marussia has started from the same position (very little preseason testing) and look how they fared.
I just hope they will get their act together and fix the cars to give 'em a proper go in FP3.

[solarcold]

This is obvious enough that the HRT team is more refreshed and changed than Marussia. I believe the reason is that Marussia has some ready basis plus some decent support of sponsors and McLaren, while HRT does not have such and started working together as a total new team. At least they tell us so, but it's obviously true. I'm still convinced the HRT is going to close the gap.

[Ferrim]

Now Pérez-Sala is saying that maybe they won't be able to race until China... this is very, very bad. Not F1-worthy.

But this is what site is actually about

[Mister Fungus]

I don't understand. This is the first time HRT actually made laps in FP2 of the first GP weekend and people are complaining?

[mario]

I'm starting to lose faith in HRT.
I'm far from saying they're hopeless, but for HWNSNBM's sake - Marussia has started from the same position (very little preseason testing) and look how they fared.
I just hope they will get their act together and fix the cars to give 'em a proper go in FP3.

To make matters worse, it seems that they had to work overnight to get De La Rosa's car ready and have already used up one of the four permitted breaches of the overnight curfews that the FIA has imposed to stop the teams from overworking their mechanics. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98048

I don't understand. This is the first time HRT actually made laps in FP2 of the first GP weekend and people are complaining?

True, although you would have hoped that they might have been able to make it into FP2 without having to partially handicap themselves in the process.

[Valrys]

I didn't watch FP2, but did Karthikeyan not get any proper dry running, or was he just genuinely that slow?

[CoopsII]

I'm starting to lose faith in HRT.

I find your lack of faith disturbing.......

Hows the throat? Is it working?

[Ferrim]

He had 16 laps, but I guess he just went out for a few laps, then came in, and so on. Just to check and fix problems all the time. This is what the other teams were doing at Jerez during the first tests after all.

[Sponge]

I was there today, Kartikayan did run in FP1 but stopped with a problem before he finished a timed lap, in FP2 he was obvviously giving the corners alot of room because they dont have any spare parts to fix a pranged car, also de la rosa did an instalation lap at the end of FP2, but no timed lap.

[minardi22]

For Valrys, from what i saw of FP2 Karthikeyan had 2/3 runs of 3 or 4 laps during the middle of the session. He was also the first out on the hard tyre with 20-25 minutes remaining, and his first flying lap got him within 5 seconds of the fastest at the time, but then went back into the pits after a second flying lap. He did not rejoin the track until literally 1 minute before the end of the session (Kovalainen nearly hit him as Karthikeyan came out of the pits into turn one), so basically while everyone else was putting in quick laps on both the soft and hard tyre for the last 15-20 minutes Narain was in the garage, so did not put any real dry weather times together.

[Wallio]

By my math, which very well could be off, doesn't look like either HRT is within 107% yet........

[Waris]

Now Pérez-Sala is saying that maybe they won't be able to race until China... this is very, very bad. Not F1-worthy.

But this is what site is actually about

Would that mean 'start-and-park' teams now exist in F1? Or is it worse and will they not race at all? I believe that if a team don't go to a race at all to at least practice, they will be suspended...

[JeremyMcClean]

By my math, which very well could be off, doesn't look like either HRT is within 107% yet........

I think you're mistaken. I don't exactly remember the calculations but Karthikeyan was off the 107% time in FP2...

[Nuppiz]

By my math, which very well could be off, doesn't look like either HRT is within 107% yet........

Well DLR has no results at all yet, and Karthikeyan's time is 7.2s seconds shy of 107%...

I hope they can get their act together for qualifying.

[mario]

By my math, which very well could be off, doesn't look like either HRT is within 107% yet........

Well DLR has no results at all yet, and Karthikeyan's time is 7.2s seconds shy of 107%...

I hope they can get their act together for qualifying.

Hopefully they will - the hydraulics problems have hurt them quite a bit, so with De La Rosa yet to set a lap time and Karthikeyan only able to do a handful of laps (with rumours that he might have also had oil or fuel pressure problems in FP2, which might explain part of the time deficit he has), they are going to be under pressure.
Mind you, it isn't a great deal easier up the road for Marussia - although Pic improved in FP2, at the moment he is still outside of 107% of the best time that Button set in FP1 (the 107% time based on Button's 1m 27.56s would be a 1m 33.69s I believe, and Pic's best time so far is a 1m 34.77s). Pic's performance does offer at least one consolation to HRT, given that Pic found 5.5s between the two sessions despite the conditions changing for the worse: if he can find that amount of time, despite only doing about a dozen laps in each session, then it suggests that they should also be able to make up a large chunk of that deficit if they can get a few laps on the board.

[David AGS]

Todays Practice session is extremely important.

Its a nice day so far, sun out, so at this moment (Melbourne does change quickly) it should be a dry.
The 2 HRT cars must do decent running to even have a chance of quali. The laps done by Narain will help, in terms of setup, but nowhere near enough.

Will be interesting to see how fast the quick guys go, in other words what will be the 107% time, cause im sure Mclaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren will go even faster today.

[cbbcisace]

Much much better in FP3....

[Aerond]

De la Rosa was quite angry at the team when he was asked by Nira Juanco after Q1... He said he had no power steering at all and that he prefered not to talk too much about the rest of the problems. However, he said they would easily find those two seconds (to catch Marussia) once they fixed the steering.

[Nuppiz]

Well, that's it for them for this weekend, then.

I hope they can fix their steering so they won't be moving roadblocks in Malaysia again.

[Shadaza]

HRT will have their work cut out to be ready for Malaysia.
I think disqualifying Karthikeyan was the right thing to do, but it is a shame de la Rosa can't start, he appears savvy enough behind the wheel to jump out the way of faster traffic and I think the team could really use the mileage.

[FullMetalJack]

HRT will have their work cut out to be ready for Malaysia.
I think disqualifying Karthikeyan was the right thing to do, but it is a shame de la Rosa can't start, he appears savvy enough behind the wheel to jump out the way of faster traffic and I think the team could really use the mileage.

Karthikeyan reminded me of Arnoux in his later F1 years. PDLR I think only got in the way once, maybe he should have been allowed to start.

[David AGS]

Lets hope for the team that Malaysia is better.

They must be ready for the first session there, or else they already will be too far behind

[GwilymJJames]

I didn't have the DRS working and had issues with the power steering, so we could have easily been in. The DRS alone is worth about nine tenths, and the power steering is virtually non-existent, it's almost impossible to drive. I think the problem is that they hydraulics are getting so hot, the viscosity of the fluid is thinner.

It's going to be damn hard in Malaysia. It's going to be a lot hotter and we have cooling problems already, so it's going to be very hard. We don't want to bullshit ourselves, it's going to be very difficult. With HRT I was under a false impression with the new car. I obviously knew there would be problems but I thought we could get in, and I am very wrong. I don't see it as a long-term problem but I won't be surprised if Malaysia is the same situation.

Back to backs in a situation like this is almost impossible; we have a few small remedies but to work on the hydraulics is a humungous job. It won't happen overnight. By China we should be okay, relatively speaking.

Not that encouraging from Narain.

[AdrianSutil]

I didn't have the DRS working and had issues with the power steering, so we could have easily been in. The DRS alone is worth about nine tenths, and the power steering is virtually non-existent, it's almost impossible to drive. I think the problem is that they hydraulics are getting so hot, the viscosity of the fluid is thinner.

It's going to be damn hard in Malaysia. It's going to be a lot hotter and we have cooling problems already, so it's going to be very hard. We don't want to bullshit ourselves, it's going to be very difficult. With HRT I was under a false impression with the new car. I obviously knew there would be problems but I thought we could get in, and I am very wrong. I don't see it as a long-term problem but I won't be surprised if Malaysia is the same situation.

Back to backs in a situation like this is almost impossible; we have a few small remedies but to work on the hydraulics is a humungous job. It won't happen overnight. By China we should be okay, relatively speaking.

Not that encouraging from Narain.

No. Seems Narain is quite pissed at the team, saying they were ready when they clearly are not. Bad times indeed.

[Mister Fungus]

Clearly the lack of Kolles's organizational prowess is being felt

[QuickYoda41]

Is this the start of a "Colin Kolles, come back"-campaign?

[fjackdaw]

Is this the start of a "Colin Kolles, come back"-campaign?

Gotta be careful what you wish for!

(In terms of Kolles going away in the first place, I mean)

[Shadaza]

Is this the start of a "Colin Kolles, come back"-campaign?

COME BACK COLIN KOLLES!

[The Passenger]

"Go home, Luis Perez-Sala"?

Doesn't quite have the same ring to it...

[Ferrim]

Stay home, Colin Kolles!

[CoopsII]

Just hang on in there guys, they'll be back in Malaysia with Pole, Fastest Lap and a 1-2.

I had a few beers this afto.

[xxiiooiixx]

No Flavio Briatore for HRT F1 team principal!! Replace hopless Narian with Adrian Sutil ! At lease if the spare parts are late Flavio has a private jet.