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Sebastien Buemi was ‘extremely disappointed’ following practice for the Chinese GP, after he crashed out at high speed when both of his front wheels parted company with his car.
Buemi had already missed much of FP1 due to brake problems on his STR5, and had only completed five timed laps when, approaching the hairpin on the back straight with 10 minutes remaining, he lost control when he suddenly found he only had two wheels.
Watch Buemi’s Toro Rosso go bang:
Although he escaped unhurt and soon extracted himself from the remains of his car, he was frustrated to have lost out on so much time behind the wheel.
“There’s not much to say about what happened in FP1. I braked, the wheels came off and that was it,” he said matter-of-factly. “Physically, I was fine, though.
“But I have to say, I am extremely disappointed that, once again, through no fault of my own, I have been unable to run for almost all of the three hours available. I will have to try and catch up on Saturday morning and we will be relying on Jaime [Alguersuari]‘s data from today to see which way to go.”
Scuderia Toro Rosso soon identified the problem and confirmed that a new upright was to blame: “Sebastien’s accident this morning was down to a technical problem on the right hand upright, which proved simple to identify once we got the car back. We have resolved the problem, which the many laps completed by Jaime this afternoon confirms,” said technical director Giorgio Ascanelli.
“Apart from the upright, the accident caused some damage to the gearbox, and a combination of fixing this problem and changing the front end meant that, despite the best efforts of the mechanics, we could not get Seb out before the end of the day.
“Fortunately though, Jaime did a lot of laps in a trouble free session, after we had stopped him as a precaution towards the end of FP1, until we had identified the problem on his team mate’s car.”
Open Car Bar
What do you think?
Sam Thomson commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Unlucky just hopes he will do well in the race.
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FalonsoFan commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Hmmm, I think Torro Rosso are lying. One dodgy upright on one side of the car should only affect that side of the car but to have exactly the same failure simultaneously on both sides is very questionable.
What very well could be the case is that Torro Rosso’s front uprights could’ve been made to be lighter to save weight (like what Suber did with their front wing supports, resulting in a very dangerous crash) and under heavy braking loads they failed. The force of the rotating wheels was enough to do the rest of the damage and, frighteningly, enough to break free of their tethers.
One track side camera-man was very nearly struck on the head with one one of the wheels.
If this ‘lightening of parts’ is a new trend amongst designers and constructors alike, I think what happened with Sauber and Torro Rosso should wake them up a bit and realize that it isn’t the route to take. Shortcuts mean short lives.
Buemi and that camera-man are very lucky to walk away from that one.
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Angrel commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 3:10 pm
To misquote the cillit bang adverts, ”BANG! And the wheels are gone”!
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CaptSlow0310 commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 3:19 pm
all I could say is . . . POP goes the world for Seb Buemi . . . it’s comical but scary safety-wise . . .
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some guy commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 3:46 pm
very scary indeed
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orkneyman001 commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 3:54 pm
“Two wheels on my wagon”……
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Mclaren Fan commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Perhaps linked to Red Bulls braking problem in Melbourne
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ioio commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Post #2 FalonsoFan reply – Not necessarily. The whole suspension could have been relying on these two parts to work together. When one failed all the strain was transferred to the second pillar, which could only end in failure. They may have developed these parts to lighten the car or maybe just to fit in other parts around it, who knows!! To say they took short cuts I find that hard to believe. If they don’t have the figures to back up a part they could put themselves into a position of man slaughter (if someone died). More probable that there was a defect in the part causing the failure…
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J4KE H4M commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 4:36 pm
it’s always nice to free whell around an F1 track…
unless 2 of your wheels actually break free…
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OldKarter commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 4:40 pm
That was lucky – if that had happened at the end of the start/finish straight given the speed they are carrying through there he could have been in a lot of trouble.
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... commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 5:21 pm
how did one of the wheels end up over the fence where spectators were?
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FAlonsoFan commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 6:19 pm
#8 Yeah, I guess you are right about the shortcuts, but it’s one of those things that have to be considered when something as strange as this occurs, I mean F1 engineers will try anything just to gain those few precious tenths of a second. But nobody knows for sure except the people involved with the team.
But all in all a very dangerous position to find yourself in regardless
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Lungus commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 7:06 pm
Maybe he was getting ready for a take off…
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Johnny Cloud commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 7:29 pm
His wheels came off!! I will never complain about toyotas again!
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F1 Nut commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 7:35 pm
I know what happened to Fernando Alonso’s engine! The ash-dust cloud from Iceland got into the No.8 Ferrari’s engine and caused a fire in his exhaust…
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F1 Nut commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 7:35 pm
I know what happened to Fernando Alonso’s engine! The ash-dust cloud from Iceland got into the No.8 Ferrari’s engine, which overheated and caused a fire in his exhaust…
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YankeeDoodle commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Buemi even still tried to turn his wheel hard even if it was useless. Good thing that wheel didn’t break free at the end of the straight, that would’ve been EPIC (in a bad way)…
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Rookie Monster commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 8:24 pm
thought i was watching ‘wacky races’ for a second there..
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superboy commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 9:41 pm
he had too much redbull
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zondarulez commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 11:12 pm
no one should joke… buemi is a very unlucky driver and deserves to be treaten with respect hope he does well tomorrow… i think hes a bit to good for torro rosso deserves to be at someone like renault or williams where he could get a few points, hes better than petrov and equal with hulkenburg.
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RWF commented on this article
Friday April 16, 2010 at 11:27 pm
Damn, his suspension just exploded!! Not break, not crack but shattered into a million bits. Ok Buemi, drive safe.
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TouroLouco commented on this article
Saturday April 17, 2010 at 9:22 am
Straight to the scene of the accident: please get it right Torro Rosso: motoGP is a 2 wheel event, F1 is a 4 wheel event.. And this will certainly not help you with the cornering speed (and also the wrong way to shed some excess weight)..
BTW This thing reminds me of the dog with 2 legs on Oprah..
Happy for Buemi though that his rear brakes continued to function..
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dg commented on this article
Saturday April 17, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Why didn’t Buemi finish his lap? Because he was two tired.
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Liam commented on this article
Saturday April 17, 2010 at 11:46 pm
Buemi can be a little boring in races, but at least he’s found a new way of exciting F1 fans!
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hercule poirot commented on this article
Sunday April 18, 2010 at 7:28 am
i bet his arse was twitching like a rabbits nose, got that off the great, top bloke brian johnson of ac/dc .i think i would have pooed myself ..best wishes …..hercule
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