Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce India

Force India steering wheel stolen at Monza

Police are investigating after Force India had one of its steering wheels stolen during the Italian Grand Prix weekend.

The team confirmed a steering wheel was reported missing ahead of Sunday’s race at Monza, with it believed to have been taken on Saturday night following qualifying at the Italian circuit. The wheel in question was a spare for Sergio Perez’s car, and local police are investigating how it came to be taken.

F1 steering wheels are worth tens of thousands of pounds, being a labour-intensive item to produce with expensive materials and technology. The theft is the second to hit an F1 team within the past 12 months, with Red Bull having more than 60 trophies stolen from its Milton Keynes factory in December last year.

Force India was celebrating a strong result at Monza, with Sergio Perez finishing sixth and Nico Hulkenberg seventh as the team regained fifth place in the constructors’ championship from Lotus.

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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.