Mark Webber has been forced to use a new chassis for the Japanese Grand Prix after his previous chassis was damaged beyond repair during the Korean Grand Prix.
The Australian was involved in an incident with Force India’s Adrian Sutil which resulted in his car sustaining a broken oil line which eventually caught fire. A slow response from the trackside marshals meant the fire caused severe damage to the chassis.
He won’t however receive a grid penalty, as the team have been able to recover the gearbox and engine.
“It’s a new car,” he confirmed. “The engine and gearbox were fine, it’s just a new chassis. It was actually damaged more by the impact than the fire, because the crash structure [of Sutil’s car] was quite strong.
“I’m used to bush fires in Australia, so it was fairly straightforward. I used the extinguisher in the car but that didn’t do it, the marshals had zero English so I couldn’t talk to them … what more could I do? I couldn’t blow it out.”
