Albers exited with a broken exhaust.

By Phil Giles
October 10 2006

Christijan Albers' untimely exit from the Japanese Grand Prix has been traced to a broken exhaust on his M16, Team Principal Colin Kolles told website F1Racing.Net.

"It was unclear what caused this incident right after the race. The car has been analysed and it is now clear what caused Albers' problem." Albers's M16 suffered a catastrophic failure which destroyed the suspension and the rear wing.  "We saw on our computers that the car was overheating and that Christijan's car had a lack of power. When we called him in to check the car, his suspension broke because of the overheating in the car."

Having qualified the car in 16th place, Christijan was keeping Red Bull Racing behind him when his race ended.  "The overheating was caused by a broken exhaust.  Christijan drove a great race," continued Kolles. "It is unfortunate that we had this bad luck. We never had this problem with the car in testing."

---

The rumour mill has been churning and other news suggests that Mclaren test driver Gary Paffet may be in the running for a seat at Spyker in 2007.  Not only Paffet but the up and coming GP2 Champion, Lewis Hamilton has also been touted for a possible seat.  It seems a bit strange that Mclaren protégé's would be allowed to take the wheel of a Ferrari powered Spyker in 2007 but stranger things have happened.