Hispania’s baptism of fire
Hispania Racing’s biggest achievement of the Bahrain Grand Prix was just getting their cars out on track.
It was always going to be tough for Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok to be competitive in a car which had never turned a wheel before this weekend.
For Chandhok in particular it was always going to be a tall order with the Indian not venturing out until qualifying; leaving him with the unenviable task of learning both the track and car in the most competitive session of the weekend up to that point.
Neither driver seemed at ease with the car, both in terms of their seat positioning or the handling of the Dallara-built machine.
They were always going to qualify on the back row of the grid and both drivers were way off the pace of the established teams; neither driver managing to get close to breaking the two minute barrier.
Chandhok went out on lap 2 with a damaged a damaged front end, meaning he had completed a total of five laps across the whole weekend.
Senna managed 17 laps before the Cosworth engine appeared to give up on the run down to the first corner.
Reliability was always going to be an issue this weekend for the team who have never tested, and then run their car in temperatures of 35-40 Celsius.
After the race Senna said:
“It was certainly a relief to have been in the race for so many laps. Everything was going well. I felt I had a little too much understeer but a good base setup.”
This approach is pretty much the attitude Hispania will have to take away from the Middle East and onto Melbourne.
For them it’s all about understanding what the car can do, and finding a set up the drivers are comfortable with and becoming reliable before they look at climbing up the grid.
Bahrain was effectively a shakedown session for the team. The next few races are likely to be the same.
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