F1: Ferrari revises wheelnut system

Ferrari will utilise a revised wheelnut system for the British Grand Prix after team principal Maurizio Arrivabene criticized them as "stupid" following the last Formula 1 race in Austria.

The old wheelnuts robbed Sebastian Vettel of time, and ultimately third place, at the Red Bull Ring as the right-rear became stuck during his only pit stop.

Following the race, an angry Arrivabene said: "We threw away, one more time, a podium for a stupid piece we need to recover, we need to fix, as soon as possible."

Ferrari has reacted quickly to the problem with changes for Silverstone.

"I know we have something here to try and it should hopefully avoid any problems in the future, but obviously we have to wait and see," said Vettel. "The guys are doing a lot of pit stop practice to see whether it works."

Vettel is also hopeful the two-day test that followed the race in Austria will yield further improvements in Ferrari's continued bid to close the gap to Mercedes. Ferrari Academy driver Antonio Fuoco completed 71 laps on day one prior to a crash, while reserve Esteban Gutierrez added 110 on day two in finishing just eight tenths of a second behind Mercedes' Nico Rosberg.

"It was a difficult test due to the weather conditions," added Vettel. "We would like to have had more running, but it wasn't the case, especially on the first day, so everybody lost a bit of time.

"There are still some things undergoing analysis, but we were pretty happy with what we could get out of the test and hopefully we will see that this weekend when I hope I can have a fight with Mercedes on track.

"They're obviously doing very well – they're very quick, very competitive – but we have to keep our feet on the ground because we know the gap is still there, so we will try our best to basically have a clean weekend."

Originally on AUTOSPORT.com