Wing Failure Blamed For Herbert Shunt.

A rear wing failure has been identified as the probable cause of Johnny Herbert's massive Barcelona crash last week, adding to general concern about the number of similar incidents in pre-season testing.


Damon Hill, who witnessed Herbert's shunt first hand, likened the impact to that which threatened his compatriot's career at Brands Hatch in 1998, and describing it as "a monster accident". Hill has pointed to the fact that several teams are experimenting with flexible rear wing assemblies in a attempt to reduce drag on the straights, although there is no suggestion that Stewart - Herbert's team - is among them.


(You can see the rear wings bending, and the FIA should be concerned about that,) said Hill, (Front and rear wing failures are two of the worst things that can happen because they only happen at high speed. The effect is that the car has effectively lost all its drag, and there is nothing to decelerate it at all.)


Herbert's accident added Stewart to a growing list of wing failure victims, which also includes Ferrari, Benetton, BAR, Sauber and Prost. The latest failure was blamed on excessive vibration from the Stewart's Ford engine. Herbert was able to climb from the wreckage of his SF-3 with little more than a bruised knee, however, and later expressed his gratitude to the improved safety of modern F1 cars.


(The head protection did a damn good job,) Herbert revealed, (and, although you can see where my helmet had crushed the structure, I stayed conscious throughout and was able to walk away. The rear wing failed just as I was going past the exit of the pit-lane and the car just turned sharply to the left at around 190mph. It was a big impact which glanced the car off again, and sent it sliding down to the first corner.)


(I could see his car going down the barrier,) added Hill, (and it just carried on crashing, ending up in the middle of the road down by turn one. It was the biggest shunt I have ever seen - an Indy-style shunt.)


The FIA Technical Working Group is due to discuss the issue of flexible wings and the number of recent failures at a meeting next Tuesday.