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F1 2010's lost teams: Campos Meta 1

In the final part of our retrospective of F1 2010's failed entries, we dive into the on-off history of the Campos team. Aiming to make the step up from GP2, financial issues bit the team hard - and it only made it to the grid at the eleventh hour after a buyout

Out of the FIA's highly contested entry process for the 2010 Formula 1 season, three teams eventually filtered through to the grid in Bahrain to begin the year in earnest - the Manor-owned Virgin Racing, Tony Fernandes' Lotus Racing and the late-arriving Hispania Racing Team.

As much as the FIA sought to invite sustainable teams to the field, all three eventual entrants were hamstrung by flaws: Manor sold up its title sponsorship to Virgin for a pittance and persisted with a car that never saw the inside of a windtunnel, Lotus had to scrape an entry together in six months, and Hispania was the product of a last-minute buyout of the Campos team. Purchased by shareholder Jose Ramon Carabante and his Grupo Hispania investment firm, the team somehow managed to make its way to the Bahrain season opener at short notice, having had no chance to test its Dallara-designed cars before the medium-haul flight to the Middle East.

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