Narain suffers hydraulic problems in Friday practice

Weather: Rainy – air 25°C, track 21°C

Pedro de la Rosa F112 – 02 #22 24th

Narain Karthikeyan F112 – 01 #23 23rd

By F1 Special Correspondent

16 March 2012: Spanish F1 outfit, HRT seems to have hit a roadblock again and are doubtful starters for the Formula 1 World Championship season opening Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park in Melbourne on Sunday unless they come out with something dramatic on Saturday. With HRT around 13 second off the pace of Schumacher’s time today, it is very difficult for the team to get the qualification.

Fastest Indian in the world and the only Indian F1 driver on the grid this year, perhaps had to wait till Malaysia to race the new car on Race Day. Exactly one year back, Narain making an F1  comeback with the HRT team failed to be on the starting grid as both the cars failed to pass the 107 per cent rule as they were off the pace. . “It will be difficult for us. I’m not thinking now about the speed of the cars,” Lus Perez Sala, HRT F1 Team Principal. said in the FIA Friday press conference. “We are trying to fit all of things to make do as best as possible to make it FP3 tomorrow,” he added.

Today, Narain Karthikeyan did three laps in the first Free Practice session and another 16 in the second by had to halt due to hydraulic problems but teammate Pedro de la Rosa could do only an installation lap. Narain was better off this year as the team which failed to get the car ready for the pre-season tests managed to get him 9 laps during the promotional filming opportunity a few days back. So it was a mixed day for HRT, as F1’s back-markers took to the track Friday.

Narain played down saying: “Today we ran with a new car in mixed conditions, so tomorrow will be like starting all over again because it looks like conditions will be dry. With few laps and a new car, we were unable to assess the balance of the car. But it was important to do some mileage and we completed 19 laps which isn’t too bad, but we still have a long way to go. As for the new car, these problems are common, they tend to happen in preseason testing and this is our testing”.

HRT came to Melbourne having completed a shakedown with only one chassis. That went to Narian Karthikeyan, who completed three laps during morning practice before rising engine temperatures caused him to coast to halt. In the afternoon the Indian managed a further 16 laps before a hydraulic problem forced him to sit out the rest of the session.

The team, meanwhile, had put in full day and a night hurrying to get de la Rosa’s car assembled. He eventually appeared during FP2, though after an installation lap another hydraulic problem forced him to climb out of the car with no further running possible.

“We managed to complete our installation lap in order to check the systems, but afterwards we detected a problem with the hydraulic system which forced us to stop,” explained the Catalan. “This is all part of the learning process, we’ve arrived here with a new car and just to have been able to get out for the second session was a feat, but we would have liked to have done more and learnt more. The last parts of the car arrived late and thanks to the brutal effort put in by the whole team, we were at least able to complete the installation lap and, thanks to this, we know where the problem is for tomorrow and can fix it.

“We start tomorrow with one problem less, and will surely run into another one, but that is part of the learning process. We knew that this Grand Prix would be difficult so we need to be patient”.

“We are trying to fit all of things to make do as best as possible to make it FP3 tomorrow. Then we will see in qualifying. For us Melbourne is a place where we are going to take certain information from the cars and go forwards for the next races.”

In Pedro de la Rosa’s case, today was his first contact with the F112. The team worked the entire night yesterday to ensure that the car was ready on time and, although the last adjustments took place this morning and he couldn’t take part in FP1, in the end Pedro made it out on to the track in the afternoon. After the installation lap, the team detected a hydraulic problem which impeded him from continuing to run. The problems have been identified and the team is already working in order to be ready from the off tomorrow.

Pedro de la Rosa: “We managed to complete our installation lap in order to check the systems, but afterwards we detected a problem with the hydraulic system which forced us to stop. This is all part of the learning process, we’ve arrived here with a new car and just to have been able to get out for the second session was a feat, but we would have liked to have done more and learnt more. The last parts of the car arrived late and thanks to the brutal effort put in by the whole team, we were at least able to complete the installation lap and, thanks to this, we know where the problem is for tomorrow and can fix it. We start tomorrow with one problem less, and will surely run into another one, but that is part of the learning process. We knew that this Grand Prix would be difficult so we need to be patient”.

Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Principal: “It’s been a complicated day but we knew what we were in for. The fact that we haven’t done pre-season testing means that we must get things right, not get ahead of ourselves and detect problems in order to fix them. What the majority of teams have done during winter, we have to do here. Narain was able to complete 19 laps and accumulate certain information. Pedro could only get through one lap, but it was an important one because the team has worked non-stop to make sure the car was finished on time for today, and they achieved it. Tomorrow we will continue to progress.”

ends