It’s very hard to predict how this weekend will play out for Hispania.

They arrive in Melbourne with no form book to give us any idea of how they will do. The only thing we can confidently predict is that they’ll be somewhere near the back, if not at the very back.

The Australian Grand Prix is effectively test number two for the team who had no pre-season testing whatsoever and are still learning about the car and their drivers.

The only realistic achievement this weekend for Hispania is to finish, but don’t be too expectant on that, as both cars will still be bugged by teething problems.

Another problem that Hispania team will face is the fact neither driver has ever been around the track.

As good as Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok may be (and it’s hard to gauge their talents at this stage of the season) they will struggle to get any respectable lap times in their hastily put together cars.

However rookie Karun Chandhok though is confident that he can get to grips with the street circuit.

“I have never driven in Melbourne but I am a very quick learner; I was able to work on a team’s simulator before the Grand Prix, so that will help my familiarization a little bit!”

Whether or not the cars will be reliable enough for him and Senna to learn the track before the race remains to be seen.

This week Bruno Senna came out and called for extra testing for the new teams before the start of the European season.

“I think both for the new teams and the new drivers it is very important to get some miles of testing. It would be great for us if we could test a little bit when we get to Europe after the first races, as we could take many of the kinks – the very basic things that we could have been able to sort out with a few miles of testing – and get them sorted out.”

Hispania most definitely need it as they enter their Australian shakedown test.

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