APRIL 1, 2010

Brakes not responsible for Vettel exit

Brake manufacturer Brembo has taken the unusual step of denying that it suffered a failure causing Sebastian Vettel to crash out of last weekend's Australian Grand Prix.

Vettel's initial impressions after he came out of his car were that his brakes had failed just prior to his off. But a Brembo statement read: 'With regard to the retirement of Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel during the Grand Prix of Australia, Brembo communicates that his exit in Turn 13 was not caused by the braking system supplied by Brembo, as some publications have reported.

'Red Bull Racing has confirmed that Sebastian Vettel retired from the Australian Grand Prix after the torque drive between the front left axle and wheel was lost. Post race investigations revealed the wheel nut was correctly tightened at the pitstop as well as other possible causes of the fault. The team has communicated that it's studying a number of solutions at present, which can be implemented for the Malaysian Grand Prix.'

In a separate issue, Red Bull is also under scrutiny from other leading teams over its suspension system. McLaren believes the team may have come up with an inventive way of altering its cars' ride height between the low fuel conditions of qualifying and the massively increased weight of the race start. But there has been no official protest yet and the FIA will not intervene without one.