in briEF - Mundo Motorizado

confirmed as a race
driver for 2012.
DeceMber 14 2011
Kolles leaves as team
principal. Thesan
consultant Luis
Perez-Sala takes over.
January 31 2012
Eeckelaert leaves.
any work that was done was spread
between as many as seven sites.
With Carabante’s businesses
struggling thanks to the economic
situation in Spain, Thesan Capital
bought HRT in June 2011, with a view to
selling it on for a profit. The new owners
resurrected a dubious plan to make HRT
the Spanish national team, eventually
setting up a new home for it in Madrid.
Kolles had aspirations to acquire the
team himself and build it up with proper
investment, but was ousted at the
end of the season and replaced by Luis
Perez-Sala, a less-dynamic team boss.
Willis left in August 2011 after
realising that the long-promised
investment simply wasn’t coming, and
Kolles had ambitions to buy the team, but was ousted as boss
February 3 2012
Karthikeyan is signed as
second driver for 2012.
March 5 2012
The HRT F112 receives
a brief shakedown test
at Barcelona.
March 17 2012
De la Rosa and
Even vet de la Rosa struggled
Eeckelaert took over as technical
director. HRT did produce a new car
for the following season, having used
the 50-per-cent-scale ‘old’ windtunnel
at Mercedes, although with cashflow
still an issue the cars were once again
not built until late on. They were
shaken down pre-season, but neither
Karthikeyan nor Pedro de la Rosa
could qualify in Australia.
Thesan did bankroll the establishment
of modest roots with a view to making
the team more saleable. On track, it was
the same old story, with the team doing
a good job considering a minuscule total
spend of around £20 million (including
the cost of the new facility). But while
things were tough in 2010 and ’11,
Karthikeyan fail to
qualify in Australia.
april 2 2012
Toni Cuquerella is
appointed as the team’s
technical director.
May 18 2012
The team has an official
opening ceremony for
analysis
demise of hrt
things took a turn for the worse in the
second half of last year.
“At the start, Thesan wanted to invest
a lot of money and put [the operation]
all under one roof,” says Karthikeyan.
“Somewhere during the year, they
started compromising on everything,
including using old parts on the car.
They came into F1 with closed eyes and
they got bitten by it because they
weren’t aware of the financial input
needed to be even half-decent.
“There were some good people at the
team, lots of good mechanics, so the
racing side was good. Even after getting
sacked, they were motivated. But you
can only do what you can with what you
have, and from July onwards it was really
bad. Towards the end of the year, we
were risking ourselves. At one point, my
number one mechanic said he would not
send the car out. I was lucky. I had some
massive shunts – particularly in Abu
Dhabi – but got away with it.”
Thesan redoubled its sales efforts.
Attempts to raise money in Spain and
off the back of underqualified reserve
driver Ma Qing Hua came to naught.
When the time came to pay the
$500,000 entry fee at the end of
November, no money was forthcoming.
HRT was left off the entry list, and even
though (at the time of writing) there
are still parties attempting to buy the
remains and restart the team, if a
phoenix rises from the flames it will
effectively be a totally new squad.
“On paper, the statistics make HRT
a complete failure,” says Eeckelaert. “But
I have a lot of good memories from my
two years there. We had some good
moments, and I’ve seen how it is
possible with a micro-budget to race in
F1. The human story was one of a lot of
effort, and people should not forget that.
It is easier to win a race with a McLaren
or a Red Bull than it was to put an HRT
on the grid at Bahrain in 2010.”
Plenty of wealthy, motivated,
motorsport and business-literate
individuals have tried, and failed, in F1.
A few have succeeded. But once Campos
was ousted, the team’s owners had their
eye on nothing more than turning a
profit and had little genuine sporting
interest. No team can thrive under those
conditions, and it’s to HRT’s credit that,
for three years, it survived.
its first permanent
facility in Madrid.
noveMber 12 2012
Thesan Capital confirms
that HRT is up for sale.
noveMber 30 2012
HRT fails to pay 2013
$500,000 entry fee and
is left off F1 entry list.
pic: Gilham, mason, Thompson/GeTTy, eTherinGTon/laT
January 17 2013 autosport.com 55