Starting last year, there have been several incidents such as the ones mentioned above, all of which happened after teenage driver Henry Surtees was killed in an F2 race at Brands Hatch after a wheel from a competitor's car hit his helmet at high speed.
A few days later, during the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Renault car driven by Fernando Alonso lost a wheel less than a lap after leaving the pits, due to a loose wheel nut.
In the 2010 Chinese Grand Prix, the entire front suspension of Sebastien Buemi's STR5 car collapsed in the Friday practice session on the Shanghai circuit, leading both wheels to come off and experience a journey of their own until finally stopping into the barriers. Luckily, no one was injured.
At Hockenheim, during the qualifying session of the German Grand Prix, Italian racer Vitantonio Liuzzi crashed his VJM03 into the wall, but his left front wheel came off and went right pas Timo Glock's Virgin car. Given this multitude of incidents, the TWG confirmed they are looking to strengthen the links between the car and its wheels by the use of an extra tether. Until now, only one tether kept the wheel connected to the car.
“One of our tasks is to constantly address safety and we have agreed to do something for next year - it has been published in the rules. We will introduce a second tether on every corner,” said McLaren's Paddy Lowe, who is also part of FIA's TWG, according to Autosport.
“Rather than try to make each tether 100 per cent reliable, what we found is that when they don't work they have been cut for some reason due to the nature of the accident. What we're thinking is if there are two on each corner, run independently, then it drastically improves the probability that one or both will survive.”
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