Haas F1 Team have traced front wing failure on Romain Grosjean’s VF-16 at the Spanish Grand Prix back to a manufacturing error, it has emerged.
The broken front wing led the Frenchman to return to the pits, which saw him lose a lap but more problems arised after he retired from the Grand Prix with braking issues, his first retirement since the 2015 United Stated Grand Prix.
Following investigations, it emerged that there were problems with the manufacturing of the wing rather than a design flaw. After the race on Sunday, Grosjean spoke to his team about improving the quality of the front wing.
“We’re going to have a word with who’s doing it because we’ve seen the problem and understood why it broke and we need better quality,” Grosjean told Autosport. “It’s all a learning process, we are still new.
“Yes we’ve had a few problems with the front wing so we’re going to work on that and I’m sure it’s going to be fine soon. We forget a bit that it’s only our fifth race.”
Grosjean made a good start at the Circuit de Catalunya, until problems started to arise on the car.
“Before the race I wasn’t very optimistic and then after the start and following the McLaren that was faster I had a very good move on [Nico] Hulkenberg,” he added. “So I thought ‘actually things aren’t looking too bad’ and then things went wrong.
“I lost the radio, lost the front wing, lost the brakes. Because we’ve been struggling with the car balance and the hotter the track the harder it is. Over a long stint when the tyres are going and the balance is out it’s very difficult to manage it.”
