When the FIA opened entries for the 2010 season they received 15 applications for new teams to increase the size of the current F1 grid. Campos, owned by former F1 driver Adrian Campos, were one of three successful teams. Campos launched his team in 1998 and since then has run cars in numerous high level championships from EuroF3 to F1 feeder series GP2. Their record was impressive, having won six drivers' championships and five team titles including the 2008 GP2 series.

The team intended to compete in Formula One as the Campos Meta Team, in collaboration with Meta Image, a Madrid based sports marketing agency which specialises in event management, sponsorship, PR and image rights marketing. In a show of confidence, Campos became the first of the "new teams" to announce a driver for 2010. At the end of October the team announced that they had signed Bruno Senna, nephew of F1 legend Ayrton Senna.

However, it soon became apparent the team would not start the year in the guise it had intended and after being bought out by the Carbarante family and rebranded Hispania Racing Team, it was still building its cars to run for the first time at the season opener in Bahrain.

Carbarante did well to keep the team afloat, getting through four drivers in its opening season as it finished 11th in the constructors' championship. In July 2011 the team was bought by Thesan Capital and renamed HRT, again finishing in 11th place having failed to run its new car in pre-season testing.

A move to the Caja Magica in Madrid was marked out as key to the team's future, but 2012 was a familiar story as a lack of running saw it fail to qualify in Australia. Despite the new headquarters, as the year went on it became apparent that funds were running out and Thesan put the team up for sale in early November.

The team completed both the final two races despite a lack of spare parts, but a buyer was not forthcoming and when the FIA's 2013 entry list was released, HRT was not on it and the team closed its doors. Ultimately, running a Formula One team from Spain was a doomed project from the start, and that the team completed three full seasons was a huge achievement in itself.