Maldonado absorbed a 17 G impact
Pastor Maldonado had to retire at Spa-Francorchamps due to a loss of power. However, another reason may have emerged, as Nick Chester explains.
The Venezuelan driver has faced a series of setbacks this year: after going off track on Friday, he had to retire due to a loss of power. However, this latest incident might just be a consequence of another issue. According to the official F1 website, Romain Grosjean’s teammate drove too aggressively over the Eau Rouge Raidillon. This might have caused a failure of the Mercedes engine, which shut down after a significant impact on a kerb.
Nick Chester, technical director of Lotus, confirmed that the chassis had taken a very significant hit to cause such an issue: « We are checking all the parts, but he had a big off at Eau Rouge and hit a curb very hard, which caused an impact of 17 G on the chassis. This seems to have indeed had an impact on the engine, even though it managed to regain power afterward. It seems that we damaged the clutch control valve. When Pastor arrived at the pit, we were able to reset the unit, we examined the extent of the damage, and then we decided to retire ».
The technical director is confident about the rest of the season and believes Lotus will be competitive in Italy: « *I think the potential is quite good. The cars have performed well on tracks with medium downforce like Montreal and Spa. Monza is a step below in terms of downforce. The car seems very efficient on this type of circuit, the E23 also has good braking and a low drag. It should go well in Italy.* »
