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The wishbone failure on Sergio Perez's Formula 1 car that led to his Hungarian Grand Prix practice crash was caused by repeatedly using the full length of the track's kerbs.

The Mexican's Force India was heavily damaged when it hit the barrier before rebounding and rolling after the right-front wheel folded under the front of the car.

The accident was triggered by a failure caused by the high loading experienced at the Hungaroring.



"The failure was due to the fact the loading that it saw is different to any other track on the calendar," Force India chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer told AUTOSPORT.

"The rumble strips here are so long that if you ride on them completely, you get high frequency, a decent aptitude load, that you don't see anywhere else.

"You can still run onto them, but don't stay on them forever. But, we have stiffened them up significantly after testing them back at base."

The design philosophy of the B-spec wishbone is the same as its predecessor but the team had to make new parts for the updated car so that it would fit.

Force India had brought a new floor and front wing to this race, but as there was a quick turnaround between races, the team had no spares and thus Perez was forced to return to the original B-spec car debuted at Silverstone.

The Mexican qualified 13th, just over six tenths adrift of team-mate Nico Hulkenberg who still has the updates, with Szafnauer suggesting the gap would likely have been halved had he had the new parts.

Perez said: "It hasn't been the easiest of weekends so far. I was very optimistic on Friday, before the accident, but what happened has affected us quite a lot.

"We have lost some of the new upgrades that we had brought to the race - parts that were working really well and were making a big difference.

"When we got back out on track this morning, I wasn't particularly happy with the aero balance of the car, which has been quite unpredictable.

"Hopefully looking at the data tonight will help us figure out a way to fix it ahead of the race."

