Red Bull’s brake manufacturer Brembo has moved to correct the widespread impression that Sebastian Vettel’s exit from the Australian Grand Prix was caused by the failure of one of its components. Vettel lost a potential victory when he was pitched into the gravel halfway through last Sunday’s race while leading, and initially assumed his brakes had failed since the car snapped out of control when he attempted to slow for turn 13.
Later on Sunday Red Bull said it had traced the cause to a problem with the left-front wheel, but media reports attributing Vettel’s retirement to brake failure persisted, to the annoyance of supplier Brembo. {Ummmmm....Vettel said over the radio that his brake disc exploded, guys}
The Italian company therefore put the record straight in a press release on Tuesday, in which it also disclosed more details about the nature of the wheel failure and said Red Bull was still investigating the best way to prevent a recurrence.
“Brembo communicates that [Vettel’s] exit in turn 13 was not caused by the braking system supplied by Brembo, as some publications have reported,” the company said. “Red Bull Racing has confirmed that 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 pit stop as well as other possible causes of the fault. The team has communicated that it is studying a number of solutions at present which can be implemented for the Malaysian Grand Prix.”
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There is a "torque drive" between the left front axle and the wheel?
Who knew?
