Narain debuts new HRT car, the F112 on `Promotional Filming’

Baracelona, 5 Mar 2012: Narain Karthikeyan, had the honour of becoming the first driver to lap the F112, the car with which HRT F1 Team will compete this season, on March 5th. He completed a few installation laps for the promotional shooting at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona even as the engineers heaved a relief saying:  “All the hard work has finally paid off.”

Karthikeyan too was excited: “The shakedown of the F112 felt good and it is a nice feeling to have the honour to be the first driver to test it. The first impressions are quite good; it’s definitely a step up from last year. We couldn’t do any set-up work or stuff like that but everything seems to be working fine and there are no major problems so we can look forward to the season now.

“Everyone has worked hard and the new team management has put everything together in a very short period of time. They’ve done a proper job with the car and I’m sure that it’s a big step forward from last year, so hopefully we can take the competition to the teams we were fighting last year”.

Earlier on Feb 3, HRT announced Karthikeyan as their second driver to complete the driver line-up for 2012 season. The first Indian to make it to the Formula 1 World Championship, will be entering into his third F1 season. Hispania Racing Team (HRT) will have 40-year old Pedro de la Rosa besides Narain.

HRT’s new car was scheduled to debut in the second pre-season test at Barcelona on February 21 but could not do it. But the team has carried out work shifts to cover 24 hours a day to make sure it could make it, for the first time in its history, to the first Grand Prix of the season having run previously as the car passed the last crash test and was homologated a befor the filming opportunity. The car was able to run after the team took advantage of one of the filming days available during the season.

The car made it to the circuit from Munich, Germany, just after one in the afternoon and the mechanics and engineers got straight down to business, working on relevant adjustments. It was a combined team effort, working against the clock, which saw its rewards four hours later when Narain Karthikeyan led the car out onto the track. Pedro de la Rosa, Dani Clos and Tonio Liuzzi were also present, as were Carlos Gracia, President of the Spanish Motorsports Federation and Salvador Servià, General Director of the Circuit de Catalunya.

The tests were carried out without any setbacks and the car carried out over ten laps. The team was able to check that the car functioned properly both from a mechanical and aerodynamic point of view as from a systems standpoint.

The team will prepare the necessary material in the upcoming days and head down under for the first Grand Prix of the season which will take place at Melbourne, Australia, in just two weeks.

The 35-year old Karthikeyan, who finished all but one of the 8 races he started in 2011 for HRT before the drive was handed over to Daniel Ricciardo, came back for a one-off home race to show his expertise and many feel that his performance at the historic inaugural Indian Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit is the reason for clinching the final seat on the grid. However, it is well-known that HRT was struggling not only at the back of the grid but was trying to rope in drivers who can bring in sponsors but Narain feels that he is fast enough among the contenders which brought the drive and believes that he and the team can benefit from the relationship.

Team principal Luis Péres-Sala, said: “I’m very satisfied today as it is a very important day for us because we were able to test some things out with the new car during this filming day. I’m very proud of each and every member of this team because everyone has contributed their little bit for this to be possible. Now we have to focus on Australia because we still have a lot ahead”.

Pedro de la Rosa said “Any sort of mileage before Australia is vital to see that the car is in good conditions. From here it is our job to try and improve it and make it progress”.