Former F1 team owner Adrian Campos has spoken about "the worst nightmare of my life" over the pre-season, as he struggled to get his team onto the grid, and eventually was forced to sell the team to shareholder Jose Ramon Carabante.
Campos was awarded a place on the 2010 grid by the FIA last year, but after struggling to secure the finances to compete in 2010, the former Minardi driver was forced to sell his team to Carabante in order to guarantee it a spot on the 2010 grid.
The team has subsequently been renamed Hispania Racing in recognition of the takeover, but Campos has been kept on as an 'executive vice-president'.
And Campos has admitted that he had suffered a nightmare winter trying to keep his team together, to the point that he told Bernie Ecclestone that he "didn't have the strength to carry on".
"All I can say is that it has been a few months in which, after taking the step that was needed after winning all the championships, I have lived the worst nightmare of my life," Campos told Spanish radio.
"It has been very, very tough, but what's clear is that everything was ready because otherwise in three days they wouldn't have made it."
He added that: "I admit there was a moment when we were completely blocked and I told Bernie that I didn't have the strength to carry on because it was a nightmare with all the pressure that we were under.
"Fortunately [Colin] Kolles arrived with the 'solution', and fortunately Jose Ramon Carabante decided to invest more money to make viable a project that was ready."
The Carabante deal, which saw Kolles installed as the new team principal, has allowed the team to remain on the grid, but Campos insists that the team was not in as bad a state as Kolles suggested prior to the buyout.
"Colin wanted to take the team to Germany and in that moment he made some unfortunate comments," Campos muttered.
"When he arrived he saw the workshop where we had everything ready for the arrival of the cars and the equipment, but of course the cars were in Italy, and so were the trucks and the equipment, that was ready to be shipped to Bahrain."
He also insisted that without the financial woes the team suffered, they would have been a real surprise package in 2010, saying: "If we could have kept the schedule of payments as it was expected, the car would have been on track on January 15 and we could have been, as I thought but didn't say, the surprise of the season."
The HRT cars continued their love affair with not lapping a track in the first Friday practice session, with Bruno Senna only completing a couple of installation laps without setting a time, and Karun CHandhok remaining in the pits for the whole session.
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