My apologies for the title of this post(google translate it). But I am only quoting the Italian truckie who was unfortunate enough to have this happen to him.
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| Damage to the trailer after tyre was replaced |
Overall, this year, we have all been pretty lucky with truck breakdowns. Previous years have been worse. But punctures are unavoidable and when it happens, we all hope that we can stop the truck as soon as possible. Having 50 kilograms of rubber and wire, flailing around at 90KMH, causes serious damage. The pressure inside a trailer tyre can exert a force of over 10 tonnes when it explodes. Because the bodywork of the trailers either wraps around the tyre or totally encloses it, when a puncture happens, IT,S GOING TO BE EXPENSIVE !!!!
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| Damaged suspension air bag |
After leaving Portimao. Portugal and driving up through Spain, my unlucky Italian friend had this happen to one of his trailer wheels. The bodywork of the trailer, the wheel rim and the suspension air bag were all severely damaged or broken as you can see in the pictures. One of Barcelona,s finest truck workshops was called and repairs were made before he could continue back to Italy. It is not just the driver who is delayed when this happens. With the car and equipment due to be sent to Antwerp for container shipping, this puts extra work on all of the team due to the delay in returning back to their factory.
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| The aftermath of the tyre failure |
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As we are no longer racing in Europe, the truckies work will now revolve around the many containers that are on their way across the Atlantic ocean. Next stop for us will be Brazil.
I will try to keep you updated with any testing that teams will be doing in Europe and hopefully not have to post any more pictures of damaged trucks and trailers.
