Grand Prix Rejects

Here lies the HRT Formula 1 Team, a small Spanish team that existed from 2009 until 2012.

The team competed from the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix until the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix scoring zero points in the three years it competed.

The team also had many names.
Campos Grand Prix/Campos Meta 1/Hispania Racing/HRT F1 Team

Share your many HRT memories here, and what was your favourite moments for these modern day rejects?

Malaysia 2012, with Karthikeyan in tenth when the red flag came out. I wanted the rain to last for the rest of the day. Sadly, it didn't happen.

At the same race, Karthikeyan would later give Vettel a headache as the cry-baby gets a flat tire near the end of the race. If only we could hear what Seb had to say on the radio afterwards, but him giving the #1 sign during the race and calling Narain an idiot post-race suffices, I guess.

During some of the later races in 2010, when it would get boring with nothing happening on track, my brother and i would be watching how far back Yamamoto was falling to see if he would actually be classified by the time the race had finished.

The 2011 Australian Grand Prix was a HRT highlight for me...

...I will let you guys figure out the reason why.

The Chicane's reasoning could be that this race brought the first DNQs in F1 since Alex Yoong missed the cut at Hockenheim in 2002, or it could be that Messrs. Liuzzi and Karthikeyan did so sporting "YOUR LOGO HERE", "THIS COULD BE YOU" and "THIS IS A COOL SPOT" on their cars when none of us could quite believe that this would be HRT's real livery for the season. Either would be good.

For more HRT memories I would add Tonio's car bowling at Monza later in the year which (for a few seconds) put him in a points-scoring position, the unexpected return of Christian Klien in 2010 (as well as a bit of Sakon Yamamoto), and Ma Qing Hua crying like a baby when he'd tested the car in 2012 (as would anyone else who had to drive it). Thinking about this, does this make HRT the only team who ever had both a Chinese and an Indian driver amongst their ranks, however briefly? (Of course, both Indian F1 drivers had a stint at HRT...)

dinizintheoven wrote:
For more HRT memories I would add Tonio's car bowling at Monza later in the year which (for a few seconds) put him in a points-scoring position,

I was in the grandstand at that chicane that year, so it had happened about 100 or so yards ahead of me (my Italian Job holiday - I did a road trip to Italy and France in the first fortnight of that September, just before starting my second degree).

I applied to be a member of their fan club mainly to get a membership card. I applied but received no card. That still hurts to this day.

CoopsII wrote:I applied to be a member of their fan club mainly to get a membership card. I applied but received no card. That still hurts to this day.

Same. I get the impression that by the time I applied, they'd run out of money to print some new ones, or afford the postage to send them out. Tragic!

CoopsII wrote:I applied to be a member of their fan club mainly to get a membership card. I applied but received no card. That still hurts to this day.

Same, I signed up to their Fan Club but I wonder what they did with all our details?

The Chicane wrote:

CoopsII wrote:I applied to be a member of their fan club mainly to get a membership card. I applied but received no card. That still hurts to this day.

Same, I signed up to their Fan Club but I wonder what they did with all our details?

Alex Wurz owns you now...

The Chicane wrote:

CoopsII wrote:I applied to be a member of their fan club mainly to get a membership card. I applied but received no card. That still hurts to this day.

Same, I signed up to their Fan Club but I wonder what they did with all our details?

They didn't have any takers for the spots on the car which said "Your Logo Here" and similar stuff. So you are surprised they didn't have any for your details either?