Image by Andy Hone/LAT
Ferrari identifies cause of Vettel crash
Ferrari has identified the cause of Sebastian Vettel’s high-speed crash on the second day of pre-season testing in Barcelona.
Vettel was starting a flying lap shortly after a red flag period on Wednesday morning when a mechanical failure occurred just as he turned in for Turn 3. The car instantly bottomed out and went straight into the Tecpro barrier on the outside of the circuit, causing a 40-minute delay while the car was removed and barrier fixed.
Ferrari spent the majority of the rest of the day repairing the damaged car while also investigating the cause, and on Thursday morning confirmed a wheel rim issue was to blame.
“After thorough checks we found that Seb’s off yesterday was due to a rim issue,” a Ferrari spokesperson said. “The rim had been damaged a few seconds before by an impact with a foreign object.”
The incident led to Charles Leclerc completing a solitary installation lap right at the end of the second day’s running, with Ferrari adapting its driver line-up for the rest of the test as a result. Having previously split running between both of its drivers on the opening two days, Ferrari is running Leclerc for the full day on Thursday before Vettel closes out the test on Friday.
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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