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pic: Thompson/GeTTy, Dunbar, Tee/LaT
DOOMED TO
FAILURE?
HRT made little impression on F1 before its final demise, but EDD STRAW believes
it was almost impossible for the team to do better, given the difficult circumstances
The numbers are damning.
The 58 grands prix entered
by the HRT team yielded no
points, a solitary 13th place
and 19 back-row lockouts for a spend
of around £70 million. It’s easy to
compare this to the debacles
experienced by the Life and Andrea
Moda teams of the early 1990s, but
it would be grossly unfair. By no
measure was HRT a success during
its three years in Formula 1, but in
the circumstances completing three
seasons was a remarkable achievement.
It’s often overlooked how credible
the team appeared initially, with
Adrian Campos’s operations having
won titles at levels as high as GP2.
Dallara was the perfect choice to build
the car, so it was no surprise to see
Campos Meta 1 on the 2010 F1 entry
list. Soon rumours of trouble emerged,
however. Gian Paolo Dallara admitted
that “factors outside our control are
slowing the process [of completing the
car] down”. As ever, such problems
were financial. And it wasn’t just due
to governing body the FIA scrapping
the £40 million budget cap.
“I started off with a very nice
programme with Dallara, but
my partners were not the people
I expected,” says Campos, who
left as team principal after Jose
Ramon Carabante bought him out.
“I preferred to sell my shares and let
them go on because they wanted to be
the face of the team. It was better to
take one step back and leave the people
with the money to it.
“In my opinion, they [the team
owners] made a big mistake. They
Disaster
timeline
How it all unravelled
for one of Formula 1’s
youngest teams
52 autosport.com January 17 2013
May 22 2009
Adrian Campos confirms
that he has applied for a
Formula 1 entry for 2010
as Campos Meta 1.
June 12 2009
The Campos Meta 1 team
is given an F1 entry for
2010 for its Dallara-
Cosworth cars.
thought that because they had the
money, they knew the business of
motorsport. But it’s very difficult. You
need to be there for many years to
know how it works. My part was to
organise the technical and the sporting
side, and they put the money in.”
Dallara was still nominally working
on the car because the arrangement
with the team – now known as
Hispania (HRT) in deference to the
Carabante-owned Hispania Group
– did not officially come to an
end until May, but progress was
stop-start. The owners sought
Bernie Ecclestone’s counsel and the
F1 supremo put them in touch with
Colin Kolles. That HRT raced at all
owed much to the resourceful former
Force India team principal.
Geoff Willis came in as technical
director, after leaving a similar post
at Red Bull in June 2009. Another
ex-Honda man, Jacky Eeckelaert, had
been working for Kolles’ sportscar
team and was brought in as they
scrambled to get the cars ready
for the opening race of the 2010
season in Bahrain.
“Colin had a [ready-made] team
because he ran the Audi LMP1 cars
in 2009, so he had the equipment,
trucks, flight cases for overseas races,
mechanics and a few engineers,” says
Eeckelaert. “The first day I could be
involved [because he was on gardening
leave after departing Honda/Brawn
a year earlier] was March 1. That day,
I took a plane to Bologna. What we
discovered at Dallara were three bare
monocoques, a few cardboard boxes
containing some suspension parts,
noveMber 11 2009
GP2 race winner Bruno
Senna is announced as
the team’s first driver.
February 19 2010
Team shareholder Jose
Ramon Carabante takes
sole ownership and
appoints Colin Kolles
as team principal
after Campos hits
sponsorship trouble.
Kolles and technical
director Geoff Willis
are tasked with getting
the team running.
March 3 2010
Team is renamed
Hispania Racing
Team (HRT).
March 4 2010
Karun Chandhok is
confirmed as the team’s
second driver as the
Dallara-built F110 is
unveiled in Barcelona.
March 14 2010
HRT F110 runs for the
first time in free practice
for the Bahrain Grand
Chandhok signs up for 2010