Stoffel Vandoorne’s Friday in Shanghai ended a touch earlier than expected. With 15 minutes to go in FP2, he had to stop out on track because yep, you guessed it, his wheel didn’t go on properly during a pit stop.
That makes the sixth instance of a driver having issues with wheels going on properly following stops. There was Fernando Alonso in testing, both Haas in Australia, Kimi Raikkonen (twice) in Bahrain, and now Vandoorne. It always seems to be the left rear, too…
The FIA is investigating why there seem to be so many problems with wheel guns this year, but chances are any fixes will take a little while to come through. This may not be the last time we see a car leaving the pits with a loose wheel.
In the meantime, McLaren has been fined €5,000 for the unsafe release.
