Overview

www.hrtf1team.com

HRT is a Spanish Formula 1 Team originally owned by Adrian Campos. Campos sold the team to José Ramón Carabante before its debut race at the 2010 Australian Grand Prix. The team were formerly known as the Hispania F1 Team before changing names for the 2011 year. HRT are, so far, the only Spanish F1 team to race in Formula 1. The team have been owned since July 2011 by the Thesan investment group.

The team began with a deal between Adrián Campos, of Campos Racing, and Enrique Rodríguez, of Meta Image. They created the name of Campos Meta. Campos run a F3 team and used to run a team in the GP2 series before it became Addax Team. Campos was running the F1 operation, alongside Spanish sports agency Meta. The team formation began in February 2009 and by October they had a number of shareholders, partners and had permission from the local government to build new facilities. In June 2009 the team, alongside US F1 (Which never entered F1) and Manor Grand Prix (known now as Marussia F1 Team), were named as one of the 3 new teams in 2010.  They confirmed Bruno Senna would be driving for them.

In December 2009 Berne Ecclestone raised concerns over the Campos team.  He feared the team would not be ready for the first race of 2010. The team admitted to being underfunded and struggling with finances and several buy out deals were rumoured. They missed all of the winter testing. In February 2010 it was revealed majority shareholder José Ramón Carabante had taken over full control of the team from Adrián Campos. He had also drafted in ex-Spyker F1 Team principal Colin Kolles to fill the same role. The team were renamed Hispania Racing F1 Team but many abbreviated it to HRT. The name was chosen for its link to Cerabante's company Grupo Hispania. On the 4^th March it was revealed Indian Karun Chandhok would race for the team. On the same day their debut car was revealed, called the F110 - which was Dallara designed and Cosworth powered.

Their first race weekend was a shambles. With no winter testing the cars first laps were during the first practice session, with Bruno Senna at the wheel. He completed 3 laps in FP1 and 17 in FP2. Contrasting to Senna's "Success" Chandhok's mechanics were unable to get the car working. He had to wait for the first Qualifying session to set his first lap and he lined up 24^th on the grid, behind Senna. Senna was 8 seconds off the front running pace, with Chandhok 1.7seconds behind. In the race Karun crashed on the 2^nd lap, blaming inexperience of the track and car, while Senna made it to lap 18 before he retired.

The 2010 season was a difficult one. The early races were tough and the car was off the pace consistently. The 2^nd round saw Chandhok take the cars first finish in 14^th place. They had closed up on the field but were still 7 seconds behind.  A double finish in Malaysia and China but from then on their reliability was poor. Sakon Yamamoto, the teams reserve driver, took Senna's spot at the British GP before Senna returned for the following round. Instead however Sakon replaced Karun for the next 4 races before another swap saw Christian Klien take his seat for the Singapore GP. Yamamoto and Klien then raced in 2 of the 4 races each. The team's best 2010 results were Chandhok's 14^th place finishes at Australia and Monaco, sharing that feat with Senna's 14^th in Korea. This left them 11^th in the constructor's championship after having more 14^th place finishes than the Virgin team.

2011 started just as disorderly as 2010 had. The team were rumoured to be up for sale a number of times, they signed a deal to race the 2010 Toyota which never made it to F1 but the deal fell through after HRT did not make the payments. They parted with Dallara and pursued a new chassis supplier. The team also "left" FOTA with an excuse of the organisation being bias to the larger teams. However FOTA stated that the team were expelled from the organisation after not paying the membership fee.

Narain Karthikeyan confirmed in January he would drive for the Hispania, better known by then as HRT, team. The team also considered Vitantonio Liuzzi for the remaining drive and he completed the 3^rd winter test in the 2010 car for them. On the 9^th March it was confirmed Liuzzi would be the team's second driver.  The 2011 car, named the F111, debuted in the 2^nd practice session of the opening Grand Prix in Australia. A new 107% rule had been put in place for the 2011 season and both drivers failed to make the cut in qualifying, meaning they could not take part in the race. The team showed improved pace in Malaysia with Liuzzi just behind the Virgin cars in qualifying. Both cars retired with mechanical problems, but the next race in China saw them finish 22^nd and 23^rd.

After a shaky start to 2011 the team soon closed in on the Virgin team. Retirements however were not far away. For the British GP Karthikeyan was replaced by Red Bull backed Aussie Daniel Ricciardo. The young Red Bull protégée and Liuzzi were evenly matched and took it in turns to finish or qualify ahead of one another. Liuzzi was dropped for the Indian GP to let Indian Karthikeyan race at his inaugural home race. The team finished 11^th in the constructors thanks to Liuzzi's 13^th place in Canada.

The 2011 season also saw the Thesan investment group buy a controlling stake in the team. In 2012 the team wanted to become "more Spanish" and employed experienced racer Pedro De La Rosa to be one of their drivers. Colin Kolles also left the team.