RED BULL: To Be Disqualified From Malaysian GP???

They had to put a safety cover over Heikki's "pit lane speed limiter" button.

Maybe they need a cover over Coulthard's "Self Destruct" button.

(And check the brakes, while you're at it.)

 

(from autosport)


Red Bull Racing have been asked to supply a technical report to the FIA to explain why the stewards should not consider excluding them from the Malaysian Grand Prix on safety grounds, following David Coulthard's accident in first practice.

Team principal Christian Horner, chief technology officer Adrian Newey and team manager Jonathan Wheatley met with the FIA race stewards immediately after second practice to explain what happened in Coulthard's crash this morning.

Coulthard ran off the track at Turn 13 after a track rod failure, but more worryingly then suffered major damage to the front suspension after it clouted a kerb at the bottom of the hill.

In the wake of another big suspension failure in Australia following Coulthard's crash with Felipe Massa, the race stewards wanted the team to explain what the situation with their car was.

Following the explanations, the stewards have now asked for a full report to convince them that the car is safe.

A report by the stewards said: "The Stewards, having met with the Team Principal and Technical Representative of Red Bull Racing in relation to the incident involving Car 9 in Practice 1, have requested that the competitor provide to the FIA Technical Delegate a report verifying that the integrity of the suspension is such that the car should not be deemed 'of dangerous constructions' under Art 2.3 of the 2008 Formula One Technical Regulations."

Article 2.3 of the technical regulations says that the "stewards of the meeting may exclude a vehicle whose construction is deemed to be dangerous."

Horner said after the first meeting with the FIA that he was sure there were no safety issues with the design of the RB4.

"It was a front right track rod, that failed," he said. "It was a brand new component fitted after Melbourne.

"We have done over 10,000 kilometres of testing with identical components. You can see that the adhesives failed and it just looked like a human error. So we have absolutely no concerns about the car's safety for tomorrow."

Newey added: "We had a track rod end failure, which caused the accident with David earlier. We know what the problems is and are confident we will be okay for the rest of the weekend.

"If a car hits something that hard then bits are going to fail. If that was another car running over the back of one that is what you want it to do, so it doesn't launch itself.

"The problem itself is what we know as infant mortality, where a cold-bond adhesive hadn't been prepared properly so a very new part failed almost straight away.

"By fitting higher mileage parts we have had no problem through winter testing or anything like that, so we are confident with a higher mileage part we will be fine. "

 

I believe Steve Matchett stated on Speed during the practice session he believed the damage occurred after DC ran wide and into the trap.

 

Interesting.

As SRT-Mike said: DC's car looked like it was made out of popsickles whereas the Ferrari was made out of steel.

Isn't it ironic, that the FIA questions the integrity of the Red Bull whereas here in the States Speed TV's Steve Matchett uses them as the quintessential F1 poster boys in his RPM segment?

"Okay Steve, now we're going to show you what makes our cars so superstrong: We upgraded last year from tooth picks to popsickles."

PS: Merged the threads. Carol was a hair faster than Ron.

 

Yes, that was really remarkable how the RBR desintegrated and kept desintegrating untill it came to a complete stop after the collision with Massa.

 

I think DCs brain is also made from toothpics and the sooner he takes himself off the track the better.

 

I thought that a long time ago at the Belgium GP when he was doodling around on the ideal line causing MS to hit him.

 

It certainly does appear to have a fragile supension, although I do rate Adrian's car design skill's ,this needs addressing pronto..

I would hate to see them kicked out..

 

After seeing the video, he hit those 2 curbs with a bit of force and the second one he hit from behind. That to my knowledge is a vertical edge and it's firmly stuck in the ground. These cars weren't meant to hit square sided speed bumps at speed were they? This whole "DQ" stuff is idiotic, that corner of the car took a serious beating that it wasn't designed to take. I don't see where all the drama is coming from.

Every race this year that I've watched or heard about has been about drama and not on track results. Racing in North America is turning into a soap opera and F1 is firmly in tow.

 

It's a strong suspension when normal forces are applied to it. When the car goes bouncing though the desert, then it's an immovable object you move into "OH, he hit something" territory. Look what happens when an F1 car gets air. Most of the tires come off and the suspension explodes. F1 cars are not dune buggies and are not rocket ships. In conclusion, they don't land very well.

 

Uh, I just realized that we're talking here about yet another suspension failure on the Red Bull. Just got around to see the Malaysia practice accident by DC. I thought we were still talking about the Melbourne accident.

That RB does look awfully fragile.

 

i raised this question with my cousins when we saw the Melbourne race. when both Massa and DC crashed, DC's car looked like it self destructed...

 

Its a conspiracy. Ferrari is getting DC banned because he was not nice to Fillepe.

 

I dunno if DQ'ing the car would be appropriate, but after seeing how it basically fell apart during the first practice I'm glad someone is at least looking into the problem. I don't think I've ever seen a car that badly damaged after running over a kerb.

 

I watched the in car view a few times and it looks like the track rod failed first and that is what caused David to go off. Crossing the curbs and the resulting suspension damage is irrelevant IMO. The real issue here is a track-rod failure at speed.

 

Begs the question why wasn't it designed to take such a hit? If a loose tire kills someone who'll care if the cause was unlikely?

 

The wheels were still attached to the car while at speed it only broke free while the car was nearly stopped, loose wheels have been dealt with. If anything the shards from the cars body work that aren't cleaned up anymore are a bigger risk.

You can't make F1 cars into 1983 VW Rabbits. The suspensions are so specialized that once a regulation is in place stating that all suspensions must take a certain load from all directions, you might as well put struts in the car. The suspensions only work in one direction and that's the "proper" direction. Anything else is driver error.

 

I watched it again and you are right. The car straightened out while in the turn then everything went to hell.

 

"Fragile" is a bit of an understatement. Seeing the crash with Massa, it rather looks like someone put some explosive stuff in their suspension... well, thinking about it... explosives often look like white powder... what's Stepney doing nowadays?

 

Bigger risk than a flying wheel and tire? Those things have killed more than once. That it stayed on as long as it did is good but they should never come loose.

 

It is questionable why the RF wheel broke its tether. Shouldn't this also be looked at?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdDgEaOyg_8

Edit: David, you beat me!

 

Ok there's no problem then, thank's for that..

 

It appear's that F1 car's should do that Florian..