Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce India

Force India seeking fixes for part failures

Force India will put fixes in place for the failures which struck its cars during the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, but believe the circuit’s kerbs were to blame.

Sergio Perez suffered a suspension failure in the first practice session which resulted in a dramatic accident, with the team not running either car until it had strengthened the part overnight on Friday. Nico Hulkenberg then suffered a front wing failure in the race, going straight on at Turn 1. Chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer told F1i it was disappointing to have the problems during a chaotic race when points were on offer, but he is sure a fix will be in place by the Belgian Grand Prix.

“There were loads of opportunities and we weren’t there to take advantage of them when usually we are,” Szafnauer said. “You’ve got to be able to finish the races and that has been our strength, so we underachieved in Hungary but we’ll learn from it. I think the load case with the rumble strips and everything is unique, but we’ll fix it so we should be completely fine for the rest of the races.”

Asked if the new B-spec parts were to blame for the failures, Szafnauer replied: “I don’t know.

“I’d hate to say yes because I’m not 100% sure about that but we’re having a look. This wing ran at Silverstone with no issues, so I think it’s the load case. But is it the load case with the new package? I’m not sure. You’ve got to compare the new package with the old to be able to make that comparison and we haven’t done that yet.”

Click here for F1i's driver ratings following the Hungarian Grand Prix

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.