Little warning before wing collapsed – Hulkenberg

2015 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Nico Hulkenberg said he had little indication his front wing was about to collapse before crashing out of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

“I didn’t have much warning that there was a problem with the front wing,” said Hulkenberg. “There was a harsh vibration just before it broke and after that I was heading straight into the barriers.”

“The final impact was not too bad because that part of the track is well protected and it absorbed the energy nicely.”

Hulkenberg’s crash came two days after Sergio Perez was pitched into the barriers and rolled over following a suspension failure. That led the team to avoid running for the rest of Friday until the cause of the problem was identified.

Force India’s chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer said the team is “still looking into what caused the wing to break” on Hulkenberg’s car.

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    Keith Collantine
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    10 comments on “Little warning before wing collapsed – Hulkenberg”

    1. I thought he was going straight to the Williams ahead (Bottas, right?). Glad he somehow managed to avoid him and he left the car unscratched.

      Very alarming to watch!

    2. I guess the connection between a pylon (left or right) and the main front wing element broke, probably due to fatigue. Remember, there is quite some load travelling through those pylons, and the load has to be transferred from carbon fibre -> some form of insert -> screw -> insert -> carbon fibre, so there are a lot of points where it can fail.

      1. The comms called it the hangers, not pylons. By god, are pylons big!

    3. A bit of a write-off weekend for FI. No points to take home and 2 cars completely destroyed. But at least their drivers are unhurt in it.

    4. Perhaps its time to look a bit at the fixings for Wings to the Nose Cones. If you look at both the Ferrari and FI nose pillars, the actual parts where it connects to the wing are minuscule, when you compare to the cars of 09/10 the Pillars were bigger and covered more of the wing and offered a wider, and more spread out area to fasten the wing and provide a better joint.

    5. I hope he got those overalls laundered before going in to the press pen.

    6. You know whats sad, I think Hulkenburg might’ve finished on the podium had this not happened.

      1. I don’t think the Force India was faster than the Red Bulls. Still a 4th would still have been a good result.

        1. McLaren benefited the most from FI’s issues.

    7. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      28th July 2015, 5:59

      I really hope that Nico gets a better car – he deserves to be in a Williams or a Ferrari.

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