Red Bull reveals what went wrong with problematic F1 rear wing and when it will return
Red Bull has detailed what went wrong with its rear wing design.
The Red Bull Formula 1 team has shed more light on why it removed its version of the ‘Macarena’ rear wing for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
Red Bull has decided to ditch its problematic rotating rear wing and revert to a more conventional design at Spa-Francorchamps after issues caused Max Verstappen to crash in qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix and when running third in the British Grand Prix.
“I think it’s quite obvious, no?” Verstappen replied on Thursday when asked why the change had been made. “So yeah, we’ll go back to the old one and then see whenever the latest, or new one, is ready again to be used for us.”
Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache was happy to go into more detail and confirmed the failure was down to a “mechanical problem” when the rear wing switched from straight mode to corner mode.
Wache also revealed that Red Bull has already fixed the issue and plans to re-introduce an improved version as soon as the Hungarian Grand Prix next weekend.
“It is a mechanical problem that we spot after the accident in Silverstone,” Wache said after Friday practice in Belgium. “We’ve fixed it and we are trying to prove that we will improve and it should be ready for Budapest.
“After Silverstone it is clear. We looked at the wing and we know what happened. We know how to fix it. We just need to make sure it is ready and we will improve.”
Asked if the failure was related to the actuator mechanism, Wache replied: “It is part of it, yeah.”
However, when pressed into the specifics about the interaction between the actuator and the rear wing, Wache refused to go into precise details.
“Sorry, I don’t want to be too precise with what we are doing because it is part of our development of this wing. It is a performance benefit to use it,” he explained.
“But we take it seriously. We discuss with the FIA internally how to make the car safe and we will make the part stronger and you will see it back soon.”
The high-speed nature of Verstappen’s crashes prompted F1’s governing body the FIA to reach out to both Red Bull and Ferrari about their rear wing designs amid safety concerns.
“We prove it to them [the FIA], but it’s more on our side that we are a bit cautious,” Wache stressed. “We don’t want to take any risks.”
When asked if Red Bull could wait until the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort following the August break to redeploy the revised rear wing, Wache responded: “It could be interesting for Budapest.”
The revolving rear wing was pioneered by Ferrari and first appeared during pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur insisted the designs are “completely different” and claimed his side had conducted 10,000km of testing without any issues.
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for Crash.net around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
