Motorsport is dangerous and will always remain so, but there are always areas where the safety of competitors and paying public can be improved and this is something that the Technical Working Group assess on a regular basis. 

One area back under the spotlight following the German Grand Prix is wheel tethers. 

Tonio Liuzzi crashed his Force India into the pit wall in qualification for the 11th round of the championship and while the impact was not especially great, the front left wheel became detached and launched across the start-finish straight.

Timo Glock was forced to brake and swerve to avoid the wheel and attached suspension components and this once again raised the question of tether safety and gains that can be made.

“You’re absolutely right, tethers are of great concern to us,” McLaren engineering director Paddy Lowe told MadeInMotorsport.com in today’s Vodafone McLaren teleconference. “We had the tragic incident last year involving Henry Surtees. We also see wheels coming off the Formula One cars rather more than we would like.

“Generally the tethers are working but they’re not reliable enough. We are seeing one-two-three wheels detaching during a season. A wheel came off Alonso’s car in Monaco and there was the one at the weekend just gone [Liuzzi on Glock]. We’ve discussed this in the Technical Working Group.

“One of the tasks of the TWG is to constantly address safety,” Lowe continued. “We’re concerned about tethers so what we’ve agreed to do for next year is – which is now in the published rules – is to fit a second tether on every corner [of the car].  

“Rather than make each tether a 100 percent reliable, what we found is that when they don’t work, they’ve been cut for some reason due to the particular nature of the accident. Our thinking is if you put two tethers on each corner that run independently – one is say the top wishbone, one in the bottom – then we’re going to drastically improve our probability that one tether will survive.”

Lowe confirmed that the changes could not be made to the current designs as the attachments needed at both ends of the tethers don’t exist on the current cars.