FORCE INDIA PRE-SEASON HORROR CRASH

Recently announced Force India driver Nathan Jefferies was seriously injured yesterday during a testing session at the teams home in India at the Buddh International circuit. Onlookers were mortified as the 19 year old rookie ploughed his car into the tyre barrier at 180mph after colliding with a small animal that made it's way onto the circuit. Jefferies was airlifted to hospital after attempts to regain conciousness proved futile. Team boss Vijay Mallya had this to say, "Obviously we are all very worried about Nathan here at the team, it's such a freak accident that there's really nothing more anyone could have done to prevent this from happening, it has happened in the past which all the teams and drivers are very aware of. Me and the team wish him well and hope he is well enough to race in the next few coming races". Jefferies will miss the very important first race of his rookie season but could make a return for the Malaysia or China races. Force India have not yet named a short term replacement for Jefferies as of yet.

Worsel Rummage wrote:Recently announced Force India driver Nathan Jefferies was seriously injured yesterday during a testing session at the teams home in India at the Buddh International circuit. Onlookers were mortified as the 19 year old rookie ploughed his car into the tyre barrier at 180mph after colliding with a small animal that made it's way onto the circuit. Jefferies was airlifted to hospital after attempts to regain conciousness proved futile. Team boss Vijay Mallya had this to say, "Obviously we are all very worried about Nathan here at the team, it's such a freak accident that there's really nothing more anyone could have done to prevent this from happening, it has happened in the past which all the teams and drivers are very aware of. Me and the team wish him well and hope he is well enough to race in the next few coming races". Jefferies will miss the very important first race of his rookie season but could make a return for the Malaysia or China races. Force India have not yet named a short term replacement for Jefferies as of yet.

Speculation has occured that the incident was caused due to either a car failure or the fact that the Indian circuit has been rushed to completion. It was speculated in the Daily Mail that The team may pull out of the first race if it was a major car issue or the fact that the Indian circuit may be missed off the calendar if the problem is believed to be that of the circut. Can you confirm any of this?

After putting these questions forward to both Vijay Mallya, team principal at Force India and Sameer Gaur, the Managing Director and Chief Executive of Jaypee Sports International who own the circuit, Vijay had this to say. "We can confirm it was not a mechnical failure or any other fault with the car but an animal that had somehow made it's way onto the circuit". Vijay then went onto say. "I don't believe it has anything to do with the track either, we've been doing some aero tests and some long distance race pace work and it went absolutely fine, I think you could call it a rather bizarre and unfortunate incident but we will definately be there for the start of the season. If the track wasn't ready we wouldn't be here, simple." whereas Sameer Gaur had this to say on the matter. "After lengthy discussions with Vijay and the rest of the Indian Motorsport council concerning the incident and circuit safety we all came to an agreement that there are more than adequate provisions for the track and if such an incident were to occur again we would definately rethink outer circuit design. We have built the circuit on what was farmland so even after careful removal of all animals and livestock there was still a small chance that there would be some that got away. I have spoken with the FIA and we both understand the implications it would have it it were to happen again. It would be a shame if the Indian Grand Prix was to be taken from the calendar, we've worked hard to get it finished in time and we gave ourselves enough of a time frame to do so. The many fans of Formula 1 in India and I are thoroughly looking forward to the first ever race in India".