HRT and Dallara: The Divorce

It’s official, today Hispania decided to distance itself from Dallara, the Italian company that built its first Formula 1 chassis.

There have been tensions between the Italian constructor and HRT, not to mention the rumors during the winter announcing payment delays. The Spanish tribulations seeing the defunct Campos become HRT did not favor this novice F1 structure. It should also be noted the strong criticisms made by Hispania about the quality of the chassis as soon as the car completed its first laps. Geoff Willis, the team’s technical advisor, and Christian Klien, their test driver, were both very scathing about the product manufactured by Dallara.

For his part, Colin Kolles, the team boss, stated at the Monaco GP that the team was close to a substitute agreement for its technical needs in 2011.

«HRT F1 Team, Hispania Racing, and the Italian chassis manufacturer Dallara Automobili SpA have mutually agreed to end their collaboration. This decision follows several discussions in recent months regarding the future of their partnership, stated a release from the Hispania team.

In this statement, Dallara was also thanked for its efforts in difficult circumstances, though dissatisfaction was expressed regarding the lack of development on the car. Hispania has been the slowest of the new teams since the beginning of the season. The two partners experienced a challenging start to 2010 for this first season in the Formula 1 World Championship, where everyone at Dallara Automobili SpA worked very hard in a race against time to be ready for the season opener in Bahrain.

The dynamics of pre-season activity at Dallara Automobili allowed the team (formerly known as Campos Meta 1 before its acquisition by Jose Ramon Carabante in February 2010) to meet very tight deadlines. Since its first F1 race, the HRT Team, Hispania Racing, has participated in six races in this 2010 Formula 1 World Championship, while Dallara did not develop the chassis during this time… The collaboration, considered by many as an impossible task, resulted in the creation of a single-seater with a chassis powered by the Cosworth V8, the F110. It is the very first car to be produced in the colors of the HRT F1 Team, Racing Hispania continues the statement.

Finally, the official statement presents a circumstantial tone:

At the end of the first six races of the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship, HRT F1 Team, Hispania Racing, and Dallara Automobili SpA agreed that what they achieved in such a short period of time was more than could reasonably have been expected…. Both parties wish each other good luck in all future endeavors.

It should be added that the agreement reached between the two parties allows HRT to independently develop the chassis built by Dallara for the rest of the season. Regarding 2011, Hispania might be tempted to build its own chassis, which would be the logical step to secure the future of a new team in F1, as confirmed by Colin Kolles:

The next step for our team is to launch a program to develop our car and then design our own single-seater for the next season.