Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies was understanding and respectful of the anger conveyed by Max Verstappen after his late-race shunt at the British Grand Prix.
Verstappen missed out on a podium finish at Silverstone after an apparent issue saw him beached in the gravel at Stowe. The rear wing of his RB22 failed to fully close on approach to the high-speed corner.
This was similar to his Q3 crash in Austria a week before, which ruined his shot at pole position.
The Dutch driver said he was “fed up” with the problems with the carr, adding that it was “getting very dangerous for me because you can really hurt yourself at these high-speed corners when it happens.
“I was lucky in Austria, I was lucky here, but that’s why you get really fed up with it.”
Red Bull’s response
When asked about Verstappen’s complaints, Team Principal Mekies said it is fair for his driver to be so unhappy.
“He’s right not to be happy – it is very unpleasant for drivers to be let down by the car in the high-speed corners in two consecutive races,” he said.
“It is also extremely unpleasant for us, as a group, to send our drivers to the gravel trap. So he’s right to be unhappy.
“I have no doubt that as a team we will put in place what is necessary for that not to happen again.
“Even if we fail to do that today, and we take that as seriously as one can do. And therefore the minimum that Max can feel today is being unhappy.”
Mekies did not elaborate on what caused the failure, but said that Red Bull do understand the issue and would not let it happen again.
“I’m not going to go into the details, because I don’t think it will be right, but we understand the failure,” he explained.
“From the early analysis today, we have suffered a different type of failure. It doesn’t make it better, but it is clear that in front of the succession of events, whether or not the failure is different doesn’t really matter.
“We are going to review the full area to make sure we leave zero chance for that to happen again.”
The incident will do little to quell continuing speculation around Verstappen’s future with the Milton Keynes-based squad, with increasing scrutiny amid recent reports about alleged secret talks with McLaren.
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