Fond memories of HRT

[F1fanaticBD]

Though a bit older, and some point I don't agree, the qualifying will certainly be an issue, as because the Caterham and Marussia might be falling into that 107% mark, which will hamper their plans. Unless they make a real good racer for the next year where they would be pushing other teams in that region.

http://www.planetf1.com/editorial/8308329/Life-Without-HRT

[Irisado]

CAD is also now available to teams which makes the design side so much easier, and a whole infrastructure of experienced specialist suppliers to motorsport and especially F1 now exists. In a pre qualifiying scenario I'm not convinced HRT could have made the grid, if at all, at most races. After all it's not often they were off the last row and then it was mostly because of grid drops by others.

Looking at the other candidates who never made it, or whose applications were turned down, I can't say how Hispania wouldn't have made the cut.

Let's not forget that they challenged Virgin on outright pace at a number of races in 2011, and could you have seen US F1, or some of the rejected team applications like Superfund doing that?  I couldn't personally.

Of course, this is hypothetical, but even if you were to compare with some of the teams back in the early 1990s, Hispania were a lot more professionally organised than some of them, and organisation helps in pressure situations such as pre-qualifying.

There are no bad teams any more.  Formula 1 is just too tightly regulated these days.  There are teams with money, teams with less money, and teams without enough money.  Hispania was in the last group, and with the financial situation in Spain getting worse, it fell off the ladder.  That was the major problem with this team.

[John S]

There are no bad teams any more.  Formula 1 is just too tightly regulated these days.  There are teams with money, teams with less money, and teams without enough money.  Hispania was in the last group, and with the financial situation in Spain getting worse, it fell off the ladder.  That was the major problem with this team.

Yeah I agree that money is the biggest single component required by a race team and a few worthy, but more wannabee teams have fallen because of lack of it.

I'm not sure your other comments are totally correct, the FIA seemed to be biased in favour of keeping an International flavour amongst the newbie teams and overlooked better British based applications from the likes of Prodrive's Dave Richards in favour of USF1 and Campos Meta 1 (HRT's first name). Hell Bernie went so far as calling into question Campos Meta 1's ability to make the grid in it's first year 09, and not much changed throughout the teams 3 ownerships and brief F1 life.

IMO the only difference between HRT, in all it's guises, and say Andrea Moda Formula(formerly Coloni) of 1992 with it's failure to qualify for a single race, is the lack of a guaranteed place if they made under 107% of an artificially slow time of the front runners in Q1.

In 92 there were 16 teams slugging it out for only 26 slots on the race grid. In fact at the Hungarian GP that year Damon Hill in a Brabam/Judd was over 107% of pole man Patrese's Williams proper full on flying lap, but Hill started in 25th on the grid anyway as no such rule existed. The Moda/Judds were much slower than even Damon on that occasion, but the financial conditions facing the teams then were even steeper, it cost shed loads to get cars ready for races they might never properly take part in.

So I don't buy any HRT sob story, the drop in Quali in 92 wasn't about making it through to the next Q session it was out of the race altogether.      

  

  

[lkjohnson1950]

Very true, but the technology in '92 was a bit easier to acquire. The limiting factor for many teams was horsepower, not aerodynamics. The Judd engine had nothing like the power of a Ferrari or Renault. The engineering and technology of even the best teams was far lower than what HRT needed for the Aero necessary to compete today.

[Irisado]

Yeah I agree that money is the biggest single component required by a race team and a few worthy, but more wannabee teams have fallen because of lack of it.

Although I will concede to you that money is not the only factor, as a cursory study of Toyota's Formula 1 adventure will tell you.  Management does play an important role too, and Thespian Capital's running of Hispania was found to be wanting at best, and shoddy at worst.

I'm not sure your other comments are totally correct, the FIA seemed to be biased in favour of keeping an International flavour amongst the newbie teams and overlooked better British based applications from the likes of Prodrive's Dave Richards in favour of USF1 and Campos Meta 1 (HRT's first name). Hell Bernie went so far as calling into question Campos Meta 1's ability to make the grid in it's first year 09, and not much changed throughout the teams 3 ownerships and brief F1 life.

You've missed some vital context out here.  Campos would have made the grid as Campos without any problems had the budget cap, which they signed up to, been agreed.  When this fell apart, both Campos and US F1 ran into serious financial difficulty, and that's why Campos (later Hispania) ended up on the back foot to the extent to which they did.

As for other potential entrants, very few looked to have better proposals than Campos and US F1.  Prodrive were a serious contender, I agree, but David Richards wasn't popular with Mosley or Ecclestone, so that's clearly why he didn't earn a place on the grid.

IMO the only difference between HRT, in all it's guises, and say Andrea Moda Formula(formerly Coloni) of 1992 with it's failure to qualify for a single race, is the lack of a guaranteed place if they made under 107% of an artificially slow time of the front runners in Q1.

I disagree.  First Andrea Moda actually did qualify for a race (Roberto Moreno, Monaco 1992, a race everyone remembers for Mansell trying to pass Senna after his unscheduled pit stop for tyres with fewer than ten laps remaining), and second the 107% rule is a lousy rule, which isn't even needed in my opinion, so using it as a comparative factor isn't really all that useful.

The reason why I say that is that the FIA only allows 26 places on the grid now regardless of the 107% rule, so you have an automatic place, unless you're hopelessly slow, as the 107% rule isn't always applied (and rightly so in my opinion, as who cares if you missed it by a few tenths of a second, I certainly don't)  In 1992, as many teams could enter the championship as they wished, so you always were going to have a different set of parameters in terms of getting onto the grid.

In 92 there were 16 teams slugging it out for only 26 slots on the race grid. In fact at the Hungarian GP that year Damon Hill in a Brabam/Judd was over 107% of pole man Patrese's Williams proper full on flying lap, but Hill started in 25th on the grid anyway as no such rule existed. The Moda/Judds were much slower than even Damon on that occasion, but the financial conditions facing the teams then were even steeper, it cost shed loads to get cars ready for races they might never properly take part in.

Brabham were very lucky though, because Minardi and Scuderia Italia had a really bad day at the office with their cars being hopelessly unsuited to the circuit.  They were normally midfield runners, but out of all of them only Martini qualified (26th for Scuderia Italia), and Morbidelli, Lehto, and Zanardi all failed to make the cut, along with Moreno's Andrea Moda (Perry McCarthy having failed to pre-qualify).

So I don't buy any HRT sob story, the drop in Quali in 92 wasn't not about making it through to the next Q session it was out of the race altogether.  

Again, some context is missing here.  You had two qualifying sessions in 1992 in which to try to get onto the grid, so providing it didn't rain, you effectively had two bites of the cherry.

I think that things are much tougher for the smaller teams than they were in 1992, although they weren't easy back then either, as the 1990s really was the start of the rot for the demise of the privateer.  The dependency on aerodynamics being what it is now though, combined with the start-up costs, and the impossibility of scoring any points, owing to the bullet proof reliability of the established teams, means that the small teams face impossible odds these days, as Hispania discovered.