Will HRT be able to score points in the season ahead?
HRT are currently standing at the end of the field with no points in pocket but there are slight chances that they may come up well in the 2012 Formula 1 season ahead.
The Madrid based team had the most challenging pre-season testing this year as their car didn’t meet the security requirements of FIA and they failed to test it during all the three tests. Although, they get a little chance to test run their car later but
it did not provide any benefit as they got very less time to make the essential developments and necessary modifications.
Later, their pair of drivers, Narain Karthikeyan and Pedro de la Rosa, was not been able to qualify for the season opener as they failed to meet the requirement of setting time within the range of 107% during the qualifying.
Afterwards, Karthikeyan didn’t fulfill the qualifying requirements in few other races but was allowed to participate on the discretion of the Stewards. Moreover, he had a collision with the defending champion, Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing in the Malaysian
GP held at Sepang International Circuit in which his car went into Vettel’s as the track was wet due to rainy conditions.
Additionally, the Indian driver has not been able to qualify for the second session and has retired in three races in the season so far. Besides, his best performance includes his 15th place finish in the Monaco GP which he secured after starting
from 22nd grid position. Furthermore, he secured 18th position in the European GP which is his second best performance while in remaining races, he couldn’t make his way even amongst the top 20.
On the other hand, De la Rosa has retired in two races in the season until now and his best performance include his 17th place finish which he secured in the European GP after taking a start from 21st grid position. Moreover, his second
best performance includes his 19th position in the Spanish GP in which he started from 22nd grid slot.
Nevertheless, the team principal of HRT, Luis Perez-Sala has said that they are optimistically looking forward to improve their pace in the forthcoming races and have planned some aerodynamic updates for their car.
He added that they have only been able to extract half of the potential of their car and are hoping to take the advantage of the remaining half of it in the upcoming races so as to secure a reasonable position in this year’s championship fight.
“I'd say we're at 50% of its potential and we can still extract another 50%, mainly in aerodynamics,” he said.
In addition, he said that they can’t launch the planned updates presently as they are facing some financial problems and will come up with the upgraded car in the Singapore GP.
“We have some upgrades prepared for Singapore GP. As a small team we can't afford small upgrades every two or three races because cost of an upgrade or creating a new piece for small upgrade is very high. Besides aerodynamic study, you have to produce parts
and that also implies a lot of time. So we have to make most of any changes and have very clear idea of direction we want to take for those upgrades to be productive,” he added.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely of the writer’s and do not reflect bettor.com’s official editorial policy.
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