Ericsson puts heavy crash down to false DRS maneuver

Marcus Ericsson endured a sudden exit from Sunday's British Grand Prix, the Sauber driver crashing heavily after entering Abbey with his DRS wide open.

The Swede said he had no intention of running full blast through the corner with his DRS open hot on the heels of Force India's Sergio Perez, insisting a botched maneuver inside the cockpit meant he failed to close his rear wing early enough.

"I wasn’t sure after the incident if it was a failure or not but we’ve looked at the data and it seems that because I have the button behind my steering wheel - it’s quite bumpy there on entry you go on the kerb - I think I just slipped. I didn’t hit it," he explained.

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Ericsson advocated a few changes to his steering wheel to prevent the mishap from happening again.

"Maybe we need to look at, on tracks like this, making sure we have a bit bigger button or something like that or see what we can do so it doesn’t happen again," he added.

"Because basically I turned in, the DRS was open and you are a passenger because the car gets turned. That was the reason why it happened."

Ericsson believed his race had been going well up to the point of his crash.

"It was going really well, we were following the strategy plan and had a good first stint," he said.

"Then, the second stint also started well, and we were waiting to become stronger through the race.

"The positive is that we made further progress and I look forward to fighting back at the next Grand Prix in two weeks’ time."

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