After a difficult 2010 debut season with the Dallara-built F110, speculation heading into the winter suggested Hispania might not return for 2011. The team's new car had a troubled gestation. An arrangement to access the abandoned Toyota TF110 project — which would have given the team access to a more developed design basis — fell through when Toyota cited the team's uncertain finances as the reason for withdrawing from the joint venture. Designer Geoff Willis was nonetheless reported to have had access to the TF110's technical plans long enough to incorporate ideas from that project into the F111 chassis.
The F111 was ultimately a development of the F110, inheriting much of its predecessor's basic architecture. The team set a provisional launch date of 3 March but did not unveil the car until 11 March at the final pre-season test in Barcelona — making it the last of the twelve teams to launch their 2011 car. Even then, key suspension components held up in Spanish customs prevented the team from conducting any meaningful running before the season opened.
The F111 completed its first timed lap in the final ten minutes of third practice at the Australian Grand Prix, driven by Karthikeyan. The car failed to qualify within 107% of polesitter Sebastian Vettel's time and was not permitted to start. For that first race weekend the F111 also had to run the F110's nose and front wing, as its own aerodynamic components had not yet passed crash testing. From Malaysia onward the correct nose and wing were fitted, and the car qualified comfortably within the 107% threshold from that point forward.
Reliability remained a persistent issue early in the year, with both cars frequently retiring with mechanical failures. Points were never threatened, but the team found some consistency as the season progressed. Their best collective result came at the Canadian Grand Prix, where Liuzzi and Karthikeyan finished 13th and 14th respectively, ahead of both Virgin drivers and one of the Lotus cars, though Karthikeyan was subsequently penalised and dropped to 17th.
Daniel Ricciardo, at the time a Red Bull junior driver, replaced Karthikeyan for the majority of the remaining races from the British Grand Prix onward, with Karthikeyan returning for the Indian Grand Prix as it was his home race. At the Indian Grand Prix, Karthikeyan finished 17th, beating Ricciardo by 31.8 seconds despite suffering first-lap damage. Neither Ricciardo nor Liuzzi bettered 18th in any race. Hispania finished eleventh in the World Constructors' Championship, ahead of Virgin.
The F111's livery was primarily white with red inserts bordered in black around the nose and cockpit. The car featured the phrase "this could be you" on its sidepods, a direct appeal for sponsorship. The livery was designed by Daniel Simon, a Hollywood concept vehicle designer known for his work on the 2010 film Tron: Legacy.
The F111 also saw pre-season use in 2012 when the successor car, the F112, was not ready in time for the first pre-season tests at Jerez. New signing Pedro de la Rosa ran an almost sponsor-free, all-white version of the F111 with new gold logos while the team, now renamed HRT under new owners Thesan Capital, waited for their new chassis to be completed.
The F111 represented Hispania's transition from a customer team — entirely dependent on an externally built chassis — to a constructor with at least nominal in-house design capability. Within the context of the small backmarker squads of the 2011 grid, that distinction carried some weight. The car never scored points and never challenged the midfield, but it served as a workable platform through a difficult season for a team operating with extremely limited resources.