On 21 November 2011, it was announced that De la Rosa had signed for HRT F1 on a two-year contract. His teammate was Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan. Both drivers failed to qualify for the first race of the season in Australia, as De la Rosa was only able to complete seven timed laps during the race weekend. At the next race weekend in Malaysia, he was able to qualify and finish 22nd in the race after receiving a drive through penalty after the race was restarted, and he was later promoted to 21st place due to Karthikeyan's 20-second penalty for an incident with Sebastian Vettel.