Spyker has been forced to delay the debut of its B-spec car until the Italian Grand Prix after it failed Formula 1's standard rearcrash test. The Silverstone-based squad had been expected to race with its upgraded F8-VII for the first time in Turkey this weekend but announced on Thursday morning that it had "unexpectedly" failed the test. The team will now revert to the A-spec carsit hasused since the beginning of the season. 'It's obviously very disappointing to delay the launch, especially considering the hard work that everyone at the factory and track has put in," said its chief technology officer Mike Gascoyne. "Unfortunately last week we had an unexpected failure of the rear crash test, possibly due to problems with a batch of material used. "Unfortunately all the other structures available we had to test were from this batch and the modifications we tried to make were not sufficient. "These tests are quite rightly very stringent and difficult to pass, but we did not expect to have a problem as the structure is very similar to the A spec one. "We are confident that we understand the problem however and should be able to pass with no problems next week. Gascoyne admits it is disappointing thatit will have to revert to the old car as it had hoped to close the gap with the upgraded versionto its nearest rivals at the back of the field in Istanbul. However one upside is thatthe team will nowhave the chance to properly track test the car for the first time at the Monza test next week. "We will now concentrate on doing the best we can this weekend," he said. "As we were aware we had a problem we brought two A spec cars as well as two B spec cars, so we will not have any problems switching back, but it's just disappointing not to have the performance increase as planned.
"On a more positive note, we will now be able to test the car at the pre-Italian Grand Prix test next week at Monza, which should allow us to be in better shape."
That's a shame, but safety is obviously the most important thing. Maybe they can do some more work on their B-spec before Italy and make an even bigger (relatively speaking) impact. Maybe they'll outperform Honda, who knows.
Ive noticed both Spyker AND Super Aguri running new front wings with full upper elements during quali. About time :D haha Now Honda, you're the only ones without one.... Im thinking that if only the rear impact structure failed Spykers new front wing might be the one from the B-Spec car, I'll take another look at it.
Ive noticed both Spyker AND Super Aguri running new front wings with full upper elements during quali. About time :D haha Now Honda, you're the only ones without one.... Im thinking that if only the rear impact structure failed Spykers new front wing might be the one from the B-Spec car, I'll take another look at it. KimisApprentice
Log in to comment