Failures to blame for both Williams shunts 16 May 2010
It was a bitterly disappointing Monaco Grand Prix for Williams, with both Nico Hulkenberg and Rubens Barrichello crashing out of the Monte Carlo race. But rather than driver errors, the British team have already discovered that both high-speed accidents were caused by car failures.
Hulkenberg’s race ended when the German slammed into the barriers in the tunnel on Lap One, after his car suffered a problem with a front wing mounting component, following clutch issues on the formation lap. Barrichello, meanwhile, who had been enjoying strong race, crashed into the wall coming up the hill to Massenet and was pitched into a dramatic spin on Lap 30 following a failure on the rear of his car.
“What happened today was a real surprise,” said the Brazilian. “I had such a good start but the car started to feel really strange after the pit stop. The steering wheel, in particular, didn’t feel normal. The problem continued to get worse and then I crashed.”
Although frustrated by their Monaco result, at least the British team have enough of a break to investigate the failures fully before the Turkish Grand Prix gets underway in two weeks’ time.
“That was not a good day for the team after a promising start for Rubens,” concluded Williams technical director Sam Michael. “We need to get all the parts back to the factory in order to identify correctly what components on both cars caused the failures. We have quite a bit of car damage to repair, but we're making progress with performance and look to further that in Istanbul.”
