FIA heavily concerned over flying debris from Haas

Charlie Whiting admits that he was worried and concerned when parts of Romain Grosjean’s Haas car came flying off.

Grosjean’s bargeboard came off whilst he was driving along the home straight in Bahrain.

Sky Sports commentator and ex F1 driver Martin Brundle first described the object as a “dustbin lid” before going on to explain the bargeboard.

An extra pit stop was required to remove another piece that was lodged in the side pods, but not before Whiting spotted potential danger.

“When anything comes off a car it’s potentially dangerous,” said F1’s race director.

“With all this furniture, as some people call it, it doesn’t take much to make it weaker – a small contact - and it will start to disintegrate, which is what happened with Grosjean.

“One bit fell off, luckily it went onto the grass.

"A couple more bits came off, and then they removed another bit at their pitstop, but it’s not very satisfactory, to be quite honest.

"Some of the stuff that comes off, even if it’s not very big, could do a lot of damage.”

Many fans were surprised not to see a black and orange flag deployed in order to take the Haas off the track in the interest of safety.