Two crashes in costly race for Williams (Monaco GP team-by-team)

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Barrichello crashed after suffering suspension failure

It was a disastrous race for Williams as both drivers crashed out.

Rubens Barrichello suffered a rear suspension failure while Nico Hulkenberg had a front wing failure in the tunnel after colliding with one of the HRTs.

Rubens BarrichelloNico Hulkenberg
Qualifying position911
Qualifying time comparison (Q2)1’15.083 (-0.234)1’15.317
Race position
Average race lap1’28.357
Laps30/780/78
Pit stops10
Monaco GP laptimes: Willams (click to enlarge)

Rubens Barrichello

Reached Q3 and got up to sixth at the start. Lost several places after his pit stop and was unhappy with the car’s handling before his crash:

I had such a good start but the car started to feel really strange after the pitstop. The steering wheel, in particular, didn’t feel normal. The problem continued to get worse and then I crashed. We now have to investigate the car to find out what the problem was.
Rubens Barrichello

Replays showed a failure at the left-rear of the car, causing him to lose control. San Michael said the team are still checking what happened:

Rubens had a rear suspension failure. We have a good idea which part is suspect, but to be completely sure, we need to await the results of materials tests back at the factory. However, it won’t be an issue going forward.
Sam Michael

Shortly after Barrichello’s crash there was another safety car period as race control inspected what they believed was a loose drain cover. Adam Cooper inspected the area after the race and had this to say on Twitter:

Just been having a look at where Rubens went off. I’m sure the failure was caused by a drain cover he was running over. It’s lethal…
Adam Cooper

Barrichello also Tweeted about the aftermath of his crash, when his steering wheel bounced into the path of oncoming cars after he removed it:

I [threw] the steering [wheel] because [I] wanted to get out as soon as possible. After the shunt I was facing the wrong side of the track and [the] car was on fire.
Rubens Barrichello

Compare Rubens Barrichello’s form against his team mate in 2010

Nico Hulkenberg

Hulkenberg failed to get away at the start of the formation lap with a problem, and so started from the back of the grid behind the HRTs.

He only made it as far as the tunnel on lap one when he crashed heavily. Sam Michael explained:

Nico had a clutch paddle sensor failure on the grid. He then touched the back of the HRT car in turn 1 and this damaged the front wing mounting pillars. When he entered the tunnel, the front wing eventually failed and he understeered off into the wall.
Sam Michael

Compare Nico Hulkenberg’s form against his team mate in 2010

2010 Monaco Grand Prix

    Browse all 2010 Monaco Grand Prix articles

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    Keith Collantine
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    18 comments on “Two crashes in costly race for Williams (Monaco GP team-by-team)”

    1. So that is where the drain cover issue comes from! I wondered about that, so thanks for clearing it up.

      Did you see the quote from Chandhok, about what happened to the steering wheel afterwards (lodged under his car, then run over by Senna as well)?

    2. Having to leave the car in a hurry is not an excuse, that steering wheel could have hit another driver in the head at speed, or knocked into the crowds.

      Is it highly irregular that Rubens has not even had a talking-to from the race stewards?

      1. He was stranded in the middle of a race track, facing the cars coming, getting rid of the steering wheel is the first thing a driver must do. He only didn’t get out just as fast because he had to listen if there were cars coming.
        If there was a misdjudgement from Rubens it is that Monaco has the most efficient stewards and they promptly signalized the spot.

    3. another dismal race for Hulkenberg. Still can’t put it together. Looked very promising in GP2 but just can’t get his F1 career going. Would be interesting to know if the problem with Rubens was due to the man hole cover? It looked like a rear wheel suspension problem.

      1. Mark Hitchcock
        17th May 2010, 19:21

        Yeah, Hulk has been a real disappointment.
        After the hype on here when we were talking about the new drivers before the season I was at least expecting him to beat Rubens.

        1. The season isn’t over yet…

        2. yeah, but what we are seeing at the moment are rookies that are taking loner to get into the groove, due to the lack of testing. Go back a few years and the hulk would have done many thousand more kilometers than he has done at the moment. He will get better, but it will take time i feel.

        3. I’m pretty sure that if some of these new drivers, let’s say Hulkenberg, Senna, Chandok, all got personal endorsements and long term contracts drawn up at the age of 10, had good personal relationships with past and present engineers and was then given a top-tier race seat for their first season, they would do a lot better.. just look at Hamilton. He was only a rookie for like 5 mins until he was racing wheel to wheel with Alonso.. give them time. You also have to remember that as F1 changes so much season upon season, the general dynamic of what it is to drive an F1 car changes quite drastically. I imagine a lot of the current crop of drivers really pull puon their previous experience with devloping the cars throughout the season to drive them to their limits. WIthout the comfort if being in a top-performing team with a good devlopment program it’s hard as a driver to know whether it is you who needs improving, the car, both or something else altogether.

          These guys will be around for a few years, and i just hope that the likes of Algesuari, Buemi, Kobayashi are given the long term treatment by their teams with ample opportunity to improve as without that support, it’s unlikely that any driver skilled or not would rise up to the task.

    4. Ruben’s really impressed me, Maybe Monaco is just a track that will give experienced drivers a bit of an edge, but I think this weekend, he was pushing that car as far as it could go. He was unlucky not to get several points.

      1. I think Rubens has taken his FW32 to the limit almost in every race. He’s really a great driver and it was a real shame his car broke.

        1. I agree wholeheartedly with OEL, a great performance all year long by Rubens and Hulk shouldn’t be judged negatively being only .2 or .3 down.

    5. Dramatic race for Williams.

    6. Anyone else not going to be surprised if Pat Fry (ex-McLaren head of engineering) ends up at Williams in the next couple of weeks?

      They’re also advertising for an F1 experienced aerodynamicist.

      1. Interesting thought – you could be onto something there.

      2. They could certainly do with his experience! If Rubens can give him the right input from the driver side, maybe they can finally get out of the slump.

      3. good line of thought that, I hope it happens because Williams is my long term hope. I wonder too if Webber might be able to build himself into a team manager and find himself a home there somewhere down the road

      4. I just read a speculation from Italy’s Autosprint (copied on several wannabe news sites), that Pat Symonds might be joining him, while Pat Fry is supposed to be courting several teams.

        No clue about how close to reality these things are, i am not so good at italian, but maybe one of our italian visitors can have a look at that.

    7. might their KERS technology become part of the saviour for Williams in the next years?

      The Porsche 911 equipped with it nearly won it’s first race at the Nurnburgring!
      see here: http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=40858

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