26/02/2012
NEWS STORY
After twice failing, HRT has finally passed all the FIA's mandatory crash tests, however, it remains unclear whether the car will run at Barcelona this week.
Before a car can participate in a Grand Prix, it has to have passed all seventeen of the (current) mandatory tests.
However, until this year this has only applied to the races, leaving teams free to run their cars in testing prior to satisfactorily passing all the FIA's rigorous examinations. Now, the cars are not even allowed on the test track until they have been given the governing body's green light.
After twice failing, once with the roll hoop, the second time with the lateral nose test, the HRT F112 has now passed all seventeentests and is free to compete in this week's test, the last before the season kicks off in Melbourne on March 18.
However, the Spanish outfit now faces a race against time to have a chassis ready for the test which gets underway on Thursday.
While drivers, Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan, are on standby, sceptics point to the fact that in the previous two years of its existence the Spanish team has failed to turn a wheel in pre-season testing, last year citing Spanish customs as the culprit for not clearing its dampers.