New HRT will not test until March

09/02/2012

HRT has announced that its 2012 contender will not hit the track until the second Barcelona test, which begins on March 1.

The Spanish outfit used Twitter to reveal tonight that its new car had failed two of the mandatory crash tests, albeit by a "minor margin".

While the chassis was given the green light and the car passed a number of other tests, the new rules mean that a car cannot take to the track until it has passed all the mandatory tests.

Consequently, the Spanish outfit which used its 2011 car this week at Jerez, says it will miss the first Barcelona test but "should" be there for the second.

In its inaugural season, and again last year, when running as Hispania, the Spanish team's car didn't turn a wheel until it took to the track in Melbourne. Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan would be excused for thinking that it's a case of deja vu all over again.