During last weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix, the Mexican driver was forced to record his first DNF in the series after a huge amount of ballast (in F1 terms, huge would be around 6 kg of ballast) coming from Sebastien Buemi's STR6 racer struck his car at high speed. According to Zehnder, the ballast acted like a true “bomb” for the Sauber C30, raising safety concerns for the races to come.
“We have informed the FIA,” admitted the Sauber team manager, while revealing that a new chassis will be sent to Shanghai from Hinwil this week. “Now there's a hole in the chassis. For China, Sergio will have a new one.”
“So far we've only been unable to repair one chassis – it was Frenzten's after he crashed in Monaco in 1994!” he added, confirming that Perez' “Chassis 01” was already sent from Kuala Lumpur to Hinwil for repairs.
Following the race in Shanghai this weekend, the F1 field will enjoy a 3-week break before heading to Europe for the 4th round of the season, in Turkey. The Swiss team will reportedly debut a new exhaust system on the C30 at Istanbul, similar to Red Bull's layout, that is expected to shed off approximately half a second per lap.
However, it's not known whether Perez will be able to switch to his old chassis from as early as the Turkish Grand Prix, scheduled between May 6-8, or at a later date.
Google News