Narain Karthikeyan, HRT, Sepang, 2011

HRT pull both cars out of race with failures

2011 Malaysian GP team review

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After failing to qualify in Melbourne HRT comfortably made it into the race in Sepang.

But both drivers had to retire their cars with technical problems.

Narain Karthikeyan Vitantonio Liuzzi
Qualifying position 24 23
Qualifying time comparison (Q1) 1’42.574 (+1.025) 1’41.549
Race position
Laps 14/56 46/56
Pit stops 0 3

HRT drivers’ lap times throughout the race:

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56
Narain Karthikeyan 123.276 111.343 110.56 110.416 109.385 109.496 109.683 109.995 111.008 112.266 110.975 111.933 112.56 115.647
Vitantonio Liuzzi 122.663 110.766 109.837 109.495 109.104 109.458 109.203 109.499 109.435 110.933 110.003 110.51 110.392 111.476 111.077 111.85 116.94 135.951 112.212 109.573 107.614 107.51 108.909 111.032 107.184 106.848 107.354 107.332 107.925 107.21 107.122 108.14 107.895 107.634 108.048 110.792 109.695 120.022 135.008 111.042 110.509 106.521 107.495 124.166 147.621 116.628
Narain Karthikeyan, HRT, Sepang, 2011
Narain Karthikeyan, HRT, Sepang, 2011

Narain Karthikeyan

Qualified a second off his team mate’s pace after flat-spotting his tyres on his second effort in Q1.

Fell back from Liuzzi at a similar rate during the race and retired with a cooling problem after 14 laps.

Narain Karthikeyan 2011 form guide

Vitantonio Liuzzi

Qualified half a second slower than Jerome d’Ambrosio’s Virgin. He was around a second a lap of the pace of the MVR-02s in the race.

Team principal Colin Kolles said: “We stopped both cars just to be safe.

“Narain?s car had very high water temperatures so we advised him to stop.

“Tonio was close to the finish the race and felt an unstable rear. We pitted the car twice to check the problem and found out that there was a damage on the rear wing so we decided to stop just for safety reasons.

“Overall it wasn?t a bad day considering this was our first proper race and our first chance to test the car in a race situation. There were no major issues so we need to try and improve for the next race in China where we hope to finish.

“Our lap times were not bad compared to the front runners, this shows there is some light at the end of the tunnel.”

Vitantonio Liuzzi 2011 form guide

2011 Malaysian Grand Prix


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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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26 comments on “HRT pull both cars out of race with failures”

  1. It was still a good achievement to qualify, good on them. Let’s hope they can be as resourceful as last year and try to build, and keep pace with Virgin.

      1. In that situation I think I was right. But luckily they have got their act together.

        1. But haven’t they had all year to get this car together?

          Ah, so now they can fix things in only two weeks!

      2. LOL, I think they are really working hard to get forward.

        And they started communicating at least a bit. Drivers and team on Twitter, posting pictures on Facebook.

        I hope they make it through the year and find someone to put some decent money in for next year.

        1. Yeah, for what they have to work with they’ve been perfectly respectable and very resourceful. They didn’t lose pace relatiive even to the front running teams last year, and that was with absolutely zero upgrades. They ran the same wing at Monaco as Monza. Virgin on the other hand have invested quite a bit more money, and it looks like HRT could be set to overtake them once they work out their reliability and can focus on setup as they did last year.

      3. Brilliant. You’ve been waiting for that havent you ben :-)

  2. When I first saw this headline I thought they’d pulled out of China!

    1. HounslowBusGarage
      11th April 2011, 12:47

      Me too!
      I would have been terribly dusappointed because I thought they made good progress in Malaysia. At this rate, they’ll be on for a win this time next year :)

    2. Sorry for the confusion. Have changed it to hopefully make it clearer.

      1. Thanks Keith, it was a tad misleading :)

      2. What did it say?

        1. It just said “HRT pull both cars out of race”. Had me worried for a second.

  3. The 107% mission accomplished for HRT in Malaysia. Now lets see if they can start bringing the cars to the finish line.

    1. All according to plan then!

      Serious, a good effort. That car shows some promise, especially when taking in account, that at least 1/3 of, it maybe more is still that old woofull car of last year.

  4. “Our lap times were not bad compared to the front runners, this shows there is some light at the end of the tunnel.”

    Those were my sentiments after the race.

    I was under the impression that Liuzzi had managed to finish, no doubt someone corrected me along the way! A positive start by their own standards.

  5. thankfully the huge circuit width at sepang meant that it was easy to lap cars. However when we get to europe I image everyone will be back to hating HRT irrespective of how much they have improved. HRT are a genuine privateer team (not like the rubbish newey talks) and should be applauded for even reaching 107%

  6. Williams4ever
    11th April 2011, 14:20

    Now who pulls cars out of race for safety reason :-?
    Maybe STR/Buemi should take a page out of their book here

    1. I suppose they stopped the Indian because repairing the possible damage woud be expensive and they stopped Liuzzi because if the rear wing breas off on the main straight and he crashes out, not only is it dangerous, its also very expensive and everyone would scream that HRT are such a crap team that they risk their drivers lifes by building rubbish cars.

    2. Sush Meerkat
      11th April 2011, 18:38

      Do the FIA check a cars legality if they pull out of the race?.

      Cynic in me.

      1. They should make a very light car with V12 engine and all the aero outside the rules, then pull both cars in the pits before the end. They’d probably be fighting in the midfield and would attract some sponsors!

  7. Well done HRT for sticking to their guns and taking a step by step approach. They are making progress at every race and have done well just to survive.

    So next target is finish the race.

  8. I was delighted to see HRT qualify for the race on Sunday.

    There were loads of comments slating HRT at Oz, and saying they are a joke and don’t belong in F1.

    I think quite the opposite, that in time (finance depending) they have some people in that team who could make a good fist of F1.

    You only have to look at Brackley, where they have a huge budget and appear to be all at sea at the moment.

    Hppefully next race they can get more running and finish the race, then win the championship in 2015 (I’m joking by the way).

    I think I read last week that they have also signed a deal to use the spare windtunnel at Brackley havent they? So every reason to feel positive for the rest of the season.

    Well done HRT, MVR must be looking over their shoulder and worrying now.

  9. Yes HRT “This could be you” winning a race.
    Keep pushing.
    As Kolles said, if he had let things get to him he would haved stopped at a corner and cried. But no sympathy for tears. Hold your head high and take your challenges head on.
    If I had some millions I’d give it to you. Right now I can only extend my good will.
    This is it guys.

  10. I thought that they won’t make it to the race this weekend but hat’s off they did. can they improve their car throughout the season is a different question?

  11. Huge improvement in just 2 weeks. Hope they continue to improve and at some point catch the Virgin drivers, maybe by the time we get to Europe.

Comments are closed.