Red Bull could scrap its ‘Macarena’ rear-wing after Max Verstappen‘s near-catastrophic Formula 1 British Grand Prix crash.
Verstappen was visibly frustrated with the RB22 after he spun out of third place and into the gravel trap outside of Stowe, at Silverstone, on Sunday.
Heading into the corner, Verstappen’s rear-wing did not attach in time, causing a sudden loss of downforce, and leading to a high-speed snap of oversteer that eventually ended his afternoon.
The 28-year-old claimed he was “fed up” by the failures of the Milton-Keynes-based team’s ‘Macarena’ innovation, something he attributed also caused his qualifying crash at Austria, just a week prior.
“It’s super dangerous, because you can really hurt yourself, two times,” he said.
“I was lucky in Austria, I was lucky here, but that’s why you get really fed up with it.”
The four-time F1 Champion’s Team Principal Laurent Mekies empathised with his driver’s emotions adding that the minimum the 28-year-old was entitled to was to “being unhappy”.
“Look, he’s right not to be happy,” added the Frenchman. “It is very unpleasant for drivers to be let down by the car in the high-speed corners in two consecutive races, [whether] it be for two different reasons [or not].
“And it is, in a much lower scale, also extremely unpleasant for us as a group to send our drivers to the gravel trap.
“And we take that as seriously as one can do, and therefore the minimum that Max can feel today is being unhappy.”
Red Bull could scrap ‘Macarena’ rear-wing to appease Max Verstappen
After Ferrari developed this ingenious trick with its rear-wing, Red Bull quickly caught on.
But six races into its introduction, the ‘Macarena’ rear-wing has emerged as a cause of concern for the team.
Heading into the Belgian GP weekend, Mekies has vowed that the team would do “whatever is necessary” to ensure a similar incident doesn’t affect its drivers.
This could, as the former Ferrari man hinted, include the decision to scrap the concept completely.
“The answer, Jon, is that we will do whatever is necessary to be on the safe side,” Mekies told The Race’s Jon Noble.
“We have raced quite a few races with that concept now. We have raced this since Miami. There have been a number of races, so it’s too early in the analysis to establish whether it’s an issue with the concept or something else.
“But we are going for sure to leave no stone unturned when it comes to it, and we have all the options open.”
Speaking of options, the Dutchman is yet to commit to Red Bull with speculations rife about his future with the team and in the F1 paddock.
After Austria, Verstappen looked like he was feeling at home with Red Bull once again, but the cracks showed after Silverstone.
His manager’s summer-break deadline is fast approaching, and the Milton-Keynes-based squad could be looking to take some drastic steps to retain his services until at least the end of his contract in 2028.
READ MORE – Max Verstappen fed-up with ‘dangerous’ Red Bull after massive Silverstone shunt
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