F1: Curb vibrations caused Haas wing trouble

Romain Grosjean's front-wing problem during Bahrain Grand Prix practice was a result of vibration over curbs, and not a failure or related to Haas's issue in Formula 1 testing.

Late in Friday's second F1 practice session, the front wing on Grosjean's Haas became dislodged and stuck momentarily underneath his front wheels, forcing him off track. He made it back to the pitlane and rejoined with a fresh wing attached.

Having identified the problem as being curb-related, Haas will work to strengthen its setup overnight.

"It wasn't a failure," team principal Gunther Steiner said. "We had a problem, something broke over the curbs and touched the curb with the vibration. We are working now to fix it.

"It doesn't seem to be a big problem to be fixed, but it's again the first time we go over these curbs and get these vibrations, so we are learning. But it doesn't concern us. We need to fix it, but it's possible, we know what to do."

Haas suffered a front wing failure on its first day of pre-season testing in February, and Steiner confirmed the Bahrain issue was unrelated.

"Absolutely nothing to do with that one," he said. "It was the vibrations that did it. Nothing to do with the failure because that one – touch wood – is fixed."

When Grosjean did return to the track, a trail of smoke came from the rear of the Haas before he again pitted, something Steiner suspects was due to a gearbox oil leak.

"It was a small oil leak," he said. "We think it's on the gearbox, it's not off yet.

"The gearbox and engine, they bleed a little bit of oil and one drop on the exhaust pipe does that. We have not seen anything on the data that seems to be wrong."

WORKING TO AVOID AUSTRALIA MISTAKES

Timing errors cost Grosjean and teammate Esteban Gutierrez a chance to make the second phase of qualifying on Haas's F1 debut and first use of the elimination qualifying format in Australia.

Steiner said there was "quite a bit" of focus on avoiding a repeat in Bahrain, including Haas's pitcrew replicating qualifying scenarios during practice on Friday.

"You may have seen that when the guys came into the pits we tried to do a simulation like in qualifying," he said. "To put it quickly on the skateboard, roll into the garage that we can do the turnaround very quickly, put the fuel in, put the new tire on. We practiced that every time we came in here.

"We learned from what we didn't do right in Melbourne and hope to have it ironed off tomorrow."

Originally on Autosport.com