F1 star pegs REASON for Bahrain drain cover issues during testing

Drain, Red Flag, Bahrain, 2024 — Photo: © IMAGO

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F1 star pegs REASON for drain cover issues in Bahrain

Logan Sargeant spoke exclusively to GPFans during testing in Bahrain

Stuart Hodge

Friday 23 February 2024 13:32 Updated: 14:10

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Logan Sargeant reckons he knows why the drain covers are coming loose after another session in Bahrain was disrupted due to an instance of it happening.

On both Thursday and Friday a drain cover at turn 11 came loose after a car ran over it, causing a session cancellation on Thursday and complete rejig of Friday's schedule following a red flag which caused a delay of over an hour.

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc struck one on Thursday, causing damage to the Ferrari's floor before Sergio Perez suffered the misfortune on Friday.

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These instances both come after a drain cover caused a major issue at the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix last year, one of the races on home turf for Sargeant.

Logan Sargeant was speaking exclusively from over in Bahrain

Sargeant: They just need to be secured better

Williams' young American star, who is entering his second season in F1 and will not appear in the final testing session, believes he has a good handle on why we are seeing more and more issues with drain covers now.

The 23-year-old, speaking exclusively to GPFans, believes it has to do with the ground-effect era cars putting more strain on them.

"I'm sure those checks are made [on drain covers]," he said. "I'm sure they're unexpected when it [a drain cover breaking] happens.

"Look at the pre-season testing here in Bahrain – a track that normally has no issues at all and we've had two huge stoppages for drain covers. I think a lot of it is possibly down to the new era of cars having so much suction coming from the floor and they just need to be secured better.”

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Charles Leclerc Sergio Perez Williams