Romain Grosjean says the brake failure which put him out of the Malaysian Grand Prix happened without warning.
The Haas driver spun into a gravel trap at turn 15.
“Our data didn’t suggest anything beforehand,” he added.
Grosjean said he was running strongly before the failure. “We did a really good first lap and we were looking at points running inside the top ten.”
“Things just didn’t go very well. I was racing with Fernando Alonso. He had power, so it was very difficult to keep him behind. I was then just trying to follow his pace.”
“The plan was to try to keep the tyres alive for quite a while. We just didn’t get to that point, though.”
Both Haas drivers retired from the race: Esteban Gutierrez dropped out when a wheel came off his car.
C
2nd October 2016, 11:53
That was one really odd brake failure.
Mike
2nd October 2016, 11:58
Just glad everyone is ok. Gotta make sure there’s no repeats of that.
Also, McLaren had power isn’t something I’m used to hearing.
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
2nd October 2016, 12:03
After amazing start to their F1 campaign they are slowing falling apart, shame.
Phylyp
2nd October 2016, 12:32
They’re merely following the lead of their A-team Ferrari :-)
Stupid humour aside, I’ve to agree with your comment – points in the first 4 races, then once more in the Austrian GP. The last 7 races have been dry, and that’s when even Manor and Renault have managed to score.
I was hoping Haas would end up in the lower end of the midfield, but they seem to be stuck in limbo between the midfield and the tailenders.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
2nd October 2016, 13:45
Good to see the gravel was just long enough to stop him.
Telvee32 (@telvee32)
2nd October 2016, 15:49
Funny, if the exit of the corner had tarmac runoff instead of kitty litter then it’s likely he would have ploughed straight into the wall. And they say that replacing all the gravel traps with runoff makes the circuits safer, and imply that this is the case 100% of the time.
x303 (@x303)
2nd October 2016, 16:39
Some commenters here questionned Grosjean’s habilities as a driver and all his radio rants. But if you look at the terrible reliability of the Haas: a mirror falling by it self in qualy, the brakes failling on one car and a lose wheel on the other… Grosjean has some point complaining.
James
2nd October 2016, 18:40
I agree, there’s clearly something wrong with his car, the car looked good earlier in the season, now it looks twitchy and slow. I hope Haas can sort the issue and finish the season on a high.
x303 (@x303)
2nd October 2016, 21:09
You’re right, let’s hope they sort it out and produce some good effort for the end of the year.
AmericanF1
4th October 2016, 16:02
Doubt it. Haas has already said they are dedicated to the 2017 car now. However, for all the criticism from all the armchair critics, I think Haas has done an outstanding job for their first season. How many teams have popped up in F1 only to limp along for a season after season at the back of the grid before going broke and disappearing without ever scoring a single point? When you consider Gene Haas’s stated goal at the beginning of the season was simply to score points, I’d say their debut effort has been a resounding success.