LONDON (Reuters) – Formula One tail-enders Hispania (HRT) will not be able to run their new car until the first day of practice at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix after calling off a planned test in Spain.
The Spanish-owned team, who build the car at a factory in Germany, blamed a problem with Spanish customs for their inability to take part in yesterday’s final pre-season test in Barcelona.
The F111 was unveiled on Friday by Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan and Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi but did not run because team boss Colin Kolles said certain suspension parts had not cleared customs.
In a later statement, the team — one of three newcomers last year that failed to score any points and were well behind the established outfits — said the problem had not been resolved and called off Saturday as well.
“Unfortunately we could not get the dampers out of customs… This is life and we will overcome this problem,” said Kolles.
Teams are due to send their cars to Melbourne next week for the March 27 season-opener.
It will be the second year in a row that Cosworth-powered HRT have arrived at the first race with a completely untested car. Last year, their debut season, they also missed much of Friday practice in Bahrain as they rushed to complete the cars.
The Formula One season would have started this weekend, had the March 13 Bahrain Grand Prix not been called off due to unrest in the Gulf kingdom.
Karthikeyan and Liuzzi did at least manage to test with the 2010 car earlier this year.
