Planet-F1

Webber calls for Barcelona changes

Wednesday 30th April 2008

Heikki Kovalainen's horror accident during the Spanish Grand Prix has highlighted the need to extend the run-off area at Turn 9 of the Circuit de Catalunya, according to Mark Webber.

Kovalainen escaped without any serious injury when he was sent hurtling into the tyre wall at Turn 9 after his left front tyre disintegrated.

Webber, director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, believes changes should be made at the corner for next year's race.

"It was a really nasty one and it is never nice to see a car buried that deep into the barriers," he wrote in his column for the BBC.

"The first thing to say is that the run-off on that corner is too tight and we need to have a look at it because any driver that has an error there is going to have a big crash.

"If Heikki's accident had happened two seconds later he would have been fine and controlled the car, but it probably happened on the worst section of that whole track.

"The problem with Heikki was that he went in at a nasty angle.

"The conveyer belt system, which keeps the tyres together, works very well for a slightly different angled contact because it is supposed to cushion the whole thing and keep the tyres intact as well.

"F1 cars are like a pencil and it meant he went under and penetrated the conveyer belt.

"It is a nasty angle as it is like being in a sled and with the amount of pressure that comes along the top of the chassis the next thing exposed in the forward section is your head.

"It doesn't matter if it was 10 rows of tyres or 20 rows - it was going to happen at that angle."