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Hispania F1 Will Not Have New Car Until Bahrain

A year has gone by and Hispania Racing F1 Team doesn't seem to have learnt much from their first campaign in Formula 1. As last year, the Spanish team will be unable to test their new challenger during the majority of the group tests scheduled through the month of February, and the first time they'll get to see it on the track will be one week before the season opener, in Bahrain.

Earlier this month, HRT's team principal Colin Kolles had told the media that his team is not planning to launch the 2011 car until after the second group test of the winter, at Jerez. And while some optimists had hoped they will see HRT's new racer in Barcelona, Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan recently revealed that won't happen.

Our new car won't be ready for the first three tests in Spain where I will drive the 2010 car,” the recently revealed driver of HRT F1 was quoted as saying to the Times of India.

However, he did offer some details regarding the new challenger which, as compared to its 2010 predecessor, will now feature a Williams transmission. As projected a few months back, the new car will not benefit from the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), but will feature the newly-developed adjustable rear wing.

If the Spanish squad does indeed manage to end work on the 2011 challenger in time for the Bahrain test, scheduled a few days before the season opening round, that means the car will enjoy track time for only 4 days (of the overall 15 testing days announced by the FIA for the 2011 campaign).

The other teams that made the FIA entry list last year alongside HRT F1, Team Lotus and Marussia Virgin, have already announced launch dates for their 2011 cars. While Team Lotus will present their car from the very first test of the winter, in Valencia, Virgin will wait one more week before hitting the track with their MVR-02, at Jerez.
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