HRT: “Our car is at 50% of its total potential”

The HRT boss, Luis Perez-Sala believes that theF112 of the Spanish team is at 50% of its total potential after the halfway point of the 2012 Formula 1 season.

The car was not tested properly as the Spanish team was unable to participate in the pre-season testing, and failed to qualify with both cars in the inaugural Australian Grand Prix.

Despite this however, this year theHRT has made a lot of progress demonstrating that it can fight and even on certain occasions can overcome its direct rival, namely the Marussia.

“I believe ours F112 is achieving good results if we consider how we started. In the winter we had many doubts, because we had a car ready but we didn't have much time to study it.” Perez-Sala said.

“The various time limits that the Federation set meant that we proceeded quickly but without being able to homogeneously organize all parts of the car project”.

“But despite all these obstacles the car is giving us good results. It has a good base and this is its most important feature. It is a reliable car with good mechanical resistance and offers many development possibilities."

“I would say it is at 50% of its potential and we can still extract the other 50%, mainly in the aerodynamic sector.”

The HRT boss stated that the car will have new developments for the Singapore Grand Prix at the end of September, and also stated that the team is able to bring numerous updates quickly.

“We have some upgrades that will be ready for the Singapore GP. Since we are a small team we cannot bring small upgrades every two or three races as the cost of a small upgrade or the creation of a new part is very high."

“In addition to the aerodynamic studies, we have to reproduce all the parts involved in them and this takes a lot of time. So we need to make targeted updates and have clear ideas in order to be productive."

Stefano Rifici