Red Bull to investigate "super dangerous" wing issue that led to Max Verstappen crash

Red Bull Racing boss Laurent Mekies says that the team will “leave no stone unturned” as it tries to address the rear wing issue that pitched Max Verstappen off the road in the closing stages of the British Grand Prix.

After Verstappen was sent spinning off at Stowe, the Dutchman described the wing as “super dangerous” and suggested that he could have been hurt after what was a second high-speed incident in two weekends, following his heavy crash in Q3 in Austria.

Both were related to the rear wing not reattaching properly after a straight-line mode zone, although the two issues were different.

“Look, he's right not to be happy,” said Mekies when asked by Crash.net what the team could do to reassure Verstappen before another race at a high-speed venue in Spa. “It is very unpleasant for drivers to be let down by the car in high-speed corners in two consecutive races, be it for two different reasons. 

“And it is on a much lower scale, 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 the team will put in place what is necessary for that not to happen again, even if we failed to do that today, and we take that as safely as one can do. And therefore the minimum that Max can fell today is being unhappy.

Mekies said that the team had understood what happened in Austria, but stressed it was too early to have a clear picture of the problem that occurred at Silverstone.

"We certainly understand what happened at Red Bull Ring,” he said. “We are not going to go into the details, because I don't think it will be right, but we understand the failure, yes. 

“And yes, from the early analysis of today's, 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 area to make sure we leave zero chance for that to happen again."

He added: “"We can certainly see from the data the fact that the wing didn't close properly, and this is why we were able to tell you guys what happened before the car came back. So that's what we can see today. 

“Now the car is just back now, and we are only able to say that it's a different type of issue compared to last week, but again, as I said, it doesn't make it better.”

Asked if the team would now review its use of the “Macarena” or upside-down rear wing concept pioneered by Ferrari, he pointed out that it had run without problems for several races.

“We will do whatever is necessary to be on the safe side,” he said. “We have raced quite a few races with that concept – we have raced it since Miami, I think. It's 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.”