Mat Coch writes:

Missing the first race is never the best way to start a year. For Hispania though it was predictable after a winter spent hibernating rather than testing - the PR department got more work out than the drivers.

At the end of 2010 Hispania managed to scrape through in eleventh spot in the championship, one place above where everybody thought it would be, and one spot higher than most people believed it should be (especially those at Virgin). It was a result, not much of one, but a result nonetheless and it should have given the team some momentum heading in to 2011.

But it didn't. Arguments with Dallara, the company that designed the 2010 car, meant the team had little time to develop its 2011 challenger. As a result the car which was rolled out in front of the press in Catalunya, missing a damper which was mysteriously stuck in customs somewhere apparently, looked remarkably similar to that which was pushed back in to the garage after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix a few months earlier. The F111, it seemed, was simply the F110 in a different dress.

So with the 2010 car carrying a new paint job the team landed in Melbourne with Vitantonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan in its employ. While the drivers donned their overalls for the pre-season driver photos the engineers and mechanics were hard at work putting the 'new' car together, which essentially saw Geoff Willis lay under the car hoping it would fall on him.

To its credit the team did get on track, briefly. With the 107% rule reintroduced, presumably to prevent there being so many backmarkers for Ferrari to complain about, Hispania never stood a chance. The car had not turned a wheel before arriving in Albert Park, so when Liuzzi rolled out of the garage on Friday afternoon the world was witnessing the team's shakedown, something it would have preferred to do behind closed doors.

Amazingly it wasn't that bad. The team was slammed for its abysmal show and appalling organisation but it wasn't given the credit it deserved when it came to the stop watch. "Most observers are applauding the team's foolhardy efforts," I wrote in an article over the Australian Grand Prix weekend.

Looking back though its 'out of the box' performance wasn't all that bad. Sure, it didn't qualify and sector times could be measured on a calendar, but it was in the ball park of the Virgin on that first outing. Given it was the first time the car had been run, and that the drivers were unfamiliar with it, and no doubt nowhere near its limit, there were some promising signs even in those early moments when disappointment and despair seemed overwhelming down that end of the paddock (in that article I describe the atmosphere at Hispania on par with that of a funeral).

As the season progressed the situation improved. The team was never going to set the world alight, but getting through the year without the embarrassment of failing to qualify again was a real achievement for what was effectively a 2010 car. Even more amazing is that the team again snatched eleventh in the championship from Virgin, thanks to a thirteenth place in Canada for Liuzzi.

Struggling for funds, from the British Grand Prix the team opted to swap Karthikeyan for Daniel Ricciardo, the Red Bull junior getting his first taste of Formula One, albeit at the other end of the grid to the team he hopes one day to race for. Ricciardo was solid, though his performances were hard to measure given a drastic lack of opponents at that end of the field. The best measure was Liuzzi, and against the Italian the youngster fared well. Both drivers were solid, neither had any hope of points or making the second phase of qualifying, but they quietly plodded along and did what needed to be done - if you discount Liuzzi's misdemeanour in Monza.

In short then the Hollywood makeover may not have changed the team's overall position, though that's about all the team could have realistically hoped for. As far as the future goes just where the team sees itself going is difficult to understand. Having signed Pedro de la Rosa as one of its drivers for 2012, presumably alongside Liuzzi, one can only speculate that it's going into a period of consolidation as it looks to develop its own car and solidify its position in the sport.

"Spanish customs can't be blamed this time, nor can a sub-par Dallara chassis," I wrote in March. "No amount of PR or assurance from Colin Kolles can disguise the fact that Hispania Racing is hopelessly unprepared for the coming season and after a year in Formula One and a winter to develop the new car the Spanish outfit appears to have run out of time, excuses and, in most cases, sympathy."

Hispania did manage to recover from its sins, though I've stopped short of eating my own words just yet. For me, next year then will be a defining year for the team. Funding appears to have been sorted meaning the team's only hurdle is producing a car. Over the winter the team must do just that, and what's more it must make the first winter test session. If the team can't manage that talk will quickly question the seriousness of the team once more, and, rest assured, I will be among that particular choir.