Karthikeyan: We're no Mickey Mouse team
Narain Karthikeyan insists that HRT aren't a 'Mickey Mouse' team after failing to take part in the final pre-season test of the year in Spain.
The team now hopes to complete a filming day at Catalunya to at least put some mileage on its 2012 car ahead of the first round of the season in Australia, although that mileage would be severely restricted and wouldn't be on Pirelli's 2012 race tyres.
Even if that filming day takes place, HRT will go into the campaign without any serious running for the third successive season but Karthikeyan insisted that the team was ready to take a step forwards during the year ahead.
"I've seen the car and it looks a lot better (than last year's)," he told Reuters. "We have a lot of experienced people in the team and everyone knows what they are doing. This is not a Mickey Mouse team. We are definitely in a better position than last year."
Team-mate Pedro de la Rosa had already expressed his hopes that the team would complete a filming day on Monday [See separate story HERE], with Karthikeyan saying the team 'basically needed another 24 hours' having failed to make it out on track for the final day of testing.
