F1 Fanatic

It does seem like Mercedes system is a tad more prone to these kind of things than the ones which have the mechanism in the middle of the wing instead of in the endplates.

And this kind of failure was off course exactly what people were wondering about when DRS was introduced, questioning the safety of it over the F-Duct. Glad they found out in time and nothing serious happened on track, but I am pretty sure both Mercedes and the FIA will have to look into the problem closely.

@raymondu999 – The team didn’t waste much time getting Schumacher onto the trolleys and into the garage. They probably knew that there was a problem with the hydraulics, and based on the sensor data, had a fair idea which hydraulic pipe was broken, but they needed to double-check. The broken pipe was probably somewhere in the radiator.

Why didn’t they just replace the whole rear wing? That’s what I was wondering during the race.

I’m surprised if the stewards don’t have a stern word with Mercedes. I thought that the rear wings were meant to fail in the closed position- not just because that’s how the teams chose to design them, but because that’s a regulation.

I agree with PM. The system was stuck. Hydraulics… it happens. I wonder actually how the failsafe is supposed to work. The system is obviously strong enough to pull the rear flap up even at max drag/downforce pulling it back. OR it’s supposed to be, anyways. In the event of a failure – that means the hydraulics have to suddenly blow off all pressure so the drag and downforce can naturally pull the flap back down. How exactly is that pressure blowoff accomplished? I’m intrigued…

Good point, but as long as it is brought up in some form so that Mercedes definitely take preventative action I’m not bothered if it’s by reprimand or just discussion.

And I hadn’t considered the double DRS making it even harder for him! No wonder he went off the track at one point, although he might not have been aware about it at the time.

What bothers me in all of this is the number of people I’ve seen across the internet claiming that DRS is suddenly unsafe and that it is only a matter of time before someone has a serious accident and the system should be banned. They may be valid concerns, but most of the people making these claims were against DRS in the first place, and are now trying to scaremonger people into believing the system should be removed from the sport.