Narain Karthikeyan will be given the full season to prove himself at HRT, the team have confirmed.
The 2011 campaign saw the Indian driver replaced mid-season by Daniel Ricciardo. However, the Australian is now driving for Toro Rosso, while the change in ownership at the Hispania team has helped Karthikeyan get his foot back in the door and on the accelerator.
Current team principal Luis Perez-Sala says that he intends for chosen drivers Karthikeyan and veteran Pedro de la Rosa to compete in all 20 Grands Prix for the grid minnows. That said, the team supremo also warned that things can change and neither driver should take a full season behind the wheel as a formality.
"The idea as of now is to race him (Karthikeyan) the whole season, but nothing is taken for granted in F1, you have to work for your place in every race," Perez-Sala told the Indo Asian News Service.
"But as things stand, Karthikeyan and Pedro will race the entire season."
With the team’s new car having failed two of the FIA's mandatory crash tests at Jerez last week, they have pulled out of next week’s pre-season date at Barcelona, however Perez-Sala is not too concerned by that.
He added: "We have a new car and a new team. That means, to start with, we will be a little bit behind.
"But we believe that sometimes to improve you must go backwards firstly, we have taken one step backwards in order to take two forward. Our target is to grow little by little as the season goes on.
"If we can stay ahead of Marussia, we will be happy and if we get closer to Caterham, then we will be delighted, but our first objective is to get things under way, improve on reliability and progress as the season advances."