When the Hispania Racing F1 Team's two cars stuttered out of their garage last Sunday to make an inauspicious start of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix it signalled the return of a Dallara-built single-seater to the F1 grid after a lengthy 18 year absence.

Then in 1992, the world's most successful racing car manufacturer which is renown for its F3 and IndyCar series dominance, was supplying F1 cars for the BMS Scuderia Italia outfit. That relationship, which started in 1988, bore little fruit, and Dallara almost returned to the F1 world on two occasions after that, firstly building test cars for an abortive return plannned by Honda seven years later, and then in the mid-1990s it was contracted by F1 hopeful Midland to built chassis although the Russian team instead chose to speed up its grand prix entry by acquiring the Jordan team and its cars.

Dallara's return to building F1 cars came after the Spanish Campos Meta 1 team last summer became one of four new teams chosen by the FIA to join F1 for this season. However the team's route to Bahrain was tortuous and without the funds to make the grade its future only secured at the very last minute with a takeover by businessman Jose Ramon Carabante's. The new team name, Hispania Racing F1 Team, and identity, said the team is strongly linked to its Spanish roots and its base will be in Murcia, near Alicante, Spain. The Dallara-built cars, which are powered by Cosworth engines, were hastily renamed at the HRT F110.

It all meant that the team, which failed to appear on track for any of the pre-season testing programme, was woefully unprepared to be in Bahrain and remained rooted to the back of the grid with neither driver, Bruno Senna or Kaurn Chandhok able to turn in more than a few laps.

In the end the team completed its first (combined) 20 laps in race conditions at the Bahrain Grand Prix in extremely hot conditions with air temperature at 35 Centigrade for the start of the 49 lap / 308.405km race. Chandhok and Senna started from the pitlane, and Chandhok’s race ended when he went off track two laps later, putting the seal on a dismal weekend for the Indian driver who barely turned a wheel. Bruno Senna had a trouble free first twelve laps, albeit lapping well off the pace and he and the team experienced their first pit stop in a race on lap 12. On lap 18 however, a broken water fitting from the radiator caused the car to lose all its water and overheated the engine, putting an end to the team's wekend.

Dr Colin Kolles, team principal, commented after the race, “I am satisfied the way things went. Karun Chandhok stopped early in the race, but it was not a mechanical failure, he could not know that the bump was there having too few miles in his car and had just never experienced that the bump was where it was on this track. We will go home with lots of important data to make step forwards as the season moves into the second Grand Prix and continue making consistent improvements. The focus today for the team was to start the race and run both cars on track. I would like to thank everyone for their dedication and we have taken an historic first step.”

Bruno Senna said: “It was certainly a relief to have been in the race for so many laps. Everything was going well. I felt I had a little too much understeer. I had a good base set-up now after these laps and my engineers will have a better starting point to work from for next race. There was a vibration from the back of the car a lap earlier and then the car suddenly stopped. We’ll have to investigate what happened. But I am very happy for the whole team for their incredible hard work to ensure we are in a position to be racing again in Melbourne.”

Karun Chandhok said: “Sorry, this was my fifth lap on this track.  I hit a bump in the new part of the circuit, I was not that much experienced in that part of the track as I had driven  only 4 timed laps over the week-end. I was pushed on exit curb, trying to bring tyres in gently, I did not know that part of the circuit. I want to thank my mechanics for accompanying my first laps on this track and the whole team for a great week-end and long sleepless hours. Now let’s look forward to start again in Melbourne.”