Formula One news

Red Bull insists car is safe

Red Bull Racing team bosses have insisted their car is of sound design and is safe to compete in this weekend's Malaysian Grnad Prix. The team was asked to explain itself after David Coulthard suffered a peculiar suspension failure during Friday practice.

"Following David's retirement in Australia, where an incident with Massa caused significant damage to his car, David's RB4 had a track rod failure during first practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix," Red Bull boss Christian Horner explained. "It was an isolated incident, which caused him to go off the circuit at Turn 14, hit a bump and go heavily into the inside of the kerbing, causing damage to his car's front suspension. The FIA takes safety extremely seriously and wanted to understand how the failure had happened. They followed up the incident by looking at our procedures in terms of rig testing, R&D testing and proof testing, for each of our components. We've demonstrated our diligence in making sure the car is safe, they understand that and are happy with the explanation that we've given them." 

Technical director Adrian Newey backed up Horner adding, "Yesterday's incident on David's car was due to a track rod failure. This in turn was due to a poor bond preparation. The component therefore failed very early in its life." 

The FIA meanwhile is keeping a close eye on the team this weekend in case there is any repeat of the Friday incident.

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