Formula 1 drivers want more pre-event checks on drain covers around circuits following two failures during this week’s test.
Running was interrupted on Thursday and Friday for over an hour each time because drain covers had come loose at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Max Verstappen suspects the current generation of cars may be contributing to the spate of drain covers coming loose in recent seasons.
“With the ground effect cars, probably it’s a little bit worse,” he said. “But also it seems like we’re driving in places that not a lot of other cars are going, in terms of opening up corners.
“Maybe these kind of things can be checked a bit more. We know that this is a potential problem with these cars and when you go to certain tracks, you know where the drain covers are. So I guess before you start driving in the weekend [you need] to double-check that everything is solid.
“I think it’s a must for the upcoming tracks that we don’t have another situation where cars get destroyed. Especially with the budget cap in place as well, it’s not nice when these things happen.”
The disruption follows a serious incident in last year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend when a loose track covering caused significant damage to Carlos Sainz Jnr’s Ferrari in the opening practice session, causing it to be cancelled.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
His team mate Charles Leclerc, who hit a loose drain on Thursday, agreed with Verstappen that more needed to be done to prevent further problems.
“It’s a serious issue, because it can have big consequences,” Leclerc said. “We have to look into it for the future, for it to not happen again.
“Yesterday we were quite lucky that it didn’t happen, in a place and in a situation similar to Vegas, but in Vegas, it was quite serious for Carlos. But I’m sure everybody’s on it and working on finding the best solution for that.”
Lewis Hamilton was involved in Thursday’s incident in Bahrain as his car ran over the loose cover Leclerc later hit on the approach to turn 11. Despite overnight repair work another cover came loose when running began this morning, which Sergio Perez ran over.
Hamilton also called for a more proactive approach to try and prevent more drains from being worked loose by cars driving over them. “It’s obviously a concern and I think, hopefully, the FIA on top of it,” he said.
“We probably need to be welding these things down in advance before us getting…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…