HRT to skip Mugello test

Editor

The HRT F1 team will not take part in next week’s test at Mugello as they want to spend more time focusing on updates for their car…

The HRT F1 team will not take part in next week’s test at Mugello as they want to spend more time focusing on updates for their car.

The Spanish-based squad missed the entire pre-season test programme and only launched their F112 shortly before the first race in Australia in the middle of March.

However, their lack of mileage before the start of the season showed in Melbourne as they were unable to qualify for the race with both their drivers outside the 107 per cent rule.

They have made progress since then with Pedro de la Rosa and Narian Karthikeyan qualifying for the races in Malaysia, China and Bahrain.

The duo, though, will once again miss out on testing from May 1-3 as the team wants to “focus its efforts and resources on the new headquarters, work on the car and properly preparing for the Spanish Grand Prix”.

“The start to the season was a little bit rushed for us and, since the cars were set up for the first time, we have been working on them at the grands prix,” team principal Luis P