25/07/2015
NEWS STORY
Force India has modified the lower wishbone on its cars following Sergio Perez' huge crash in FP1.
Still numb from the loss of Jules Bianchi a few days earlier, F1 held its breath as the TV cameras suddenly picked up on the Mexican's car, upside down in the middle of the track, debris strewn around.
After an agonising wait, asked if he was OK, a clearly breathless Perez confirmed that he was. Indeed, following a visit to the circuit's medical centre he looked none the worse for his ordeal, suggesting to reporters that he was to blame for the crash having gone wide on to the "dirty Astroturf".
However, by this time film of the incident had revealed that whilst he did run wide, something appeared to fall from the car.
The B-spec VJM08 made its track debut at Silverstone, and though both drivers are happy with the upgraded car there had been no previous testing.
As the team began it investigation in to the cause of the incident it opted not to run either driver in the second practice session.
Last night, Force India CEO Otmar Szafnauer, appeared confident that the cause of the accident had been found and that the part in question could be modified in time to allow both drivers to run this morning.
"It looks like a lower wishbone had a buckle," he told Fox Sports. "If that's the case we've got to stiffen it. We'll wrap it with carbon to make it stiffer – we've got the capability here on site, and we'll do the same back at base and test it, and we should be OK for tomorrow.
"We're not 100 percent sure, but we think the rumble strips set up a frequency," he added. "We should be able to go over the curbs, but we'll just be a bit more careful how long we stay on them."
Referring to the time lost, especially in FP2 when the team would have made use of the option rubber, he admitted: "It's not ideal. We've got to do some of the work we planned on doing in FP2 tomorrow. That puts us on the back foot.
"The good news is that Sergio was saying the car was good from the off, so hopefully we'll dial it in and then do some long runs as well."
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