Red Bull’s front bib device raised eyebrows in the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix paddock, especially from Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who branded it “outrageous”.
Reports emerged last Thursday of a front bib height adjustment device deep within the footwell of the Red Bull RB20 – which the FIA ultimately put a seal on after rival outfits raised concerns.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown led complaints, wanting the FIA to investigate whether the device had ever been used under parc ferme conditions.
The device, said to have been a feature on Red Bull cars for three years, cannot be accessed when the RB20 is fully assembled and the FIA’s Single Seater Director Nikolas Tombazis considered the matter closed.
“Honestly, can I say with complete certainty about whether there’s ever been anything irregular, no. Can I say that the matter is closed? Yes, absolutely.”
The FIA claimed there was no sufficient evidence to support foul play, nor were there proper measures to record such an instance, but Wolff remains dissatisfied with the situation.
“It’s outrageous,” the Austrian exclaimed to select media including Motorsport Week following the United States GP.
“I didn’t know that in Formula One we were using such devices. It’s not good enough to say that’s it.
“Why would you design such a thing and put two marks on it for two positions.”
Wolff calls for further FIA investigation into Red Bull
Wolff was asked whether the FIA should press matters further, and perhaps begin interviewing people.
“I cannot speak for the FIA at all,” Wolff replied. “I cannot speak for Nikolas.”
Interrogation was a stance that Tombazis was very much against, saying “we don’t want to be fitting lie detectors on people and doing interrogations under bright lights, or something like that. That is not what we want to do here.”
Asked whether there was anything further the FIA could do to prove whether Red Bull made illegal adjustments to its car, Wolff said “I think the leadership of the FIA is going to look at that and say, what are we doing with this?”
Wolff argued that Mercedes is “designing parts that are within the regulations.
“Sometimes on things like aero-elasticity you would probably want to go as far as you can.
“But there are certain parts which you would question why they exist. We haven’t just seen it for a long time and we should have.”
In his comments to Sky Sports, Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner sought to downplay all the fuss around his squad.
“It [the adjuster] is on a list of the open-source components,” he said.
“So, it’s been publicly available for the last three years. The FIA are happy with it. I think [the investigation] is just to satisfy perhaps some paranoia elsewhere in the paddock.
“Every car has a tool that they can adjust the front of the bib with,” Horner added.
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