Red Bull technical director Pierre Waché has confirmed that the Milton Keynes team has identified the issue that affected its pivoting rear wing between Austria and Silverstone. Red Bull has already taken the necessary countermeasures to make the solution reliable and plans to test it again on the RB22 at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
There has been one notable absentee at the Belgian Grand Prix, which is currently taking place at Spa-Francorchamps: Red Bull’s pivoting rear wing. Its absence became clear on Friday, when the RB22 cars of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar appeared with the standard wing used by the team before the introduction of the mobile device.
Red Bull returns to standard rear wing at Spa
The pivoting wing is a direct descendant of Ferrari’s concept. While Ferrari has not encountered problems with its own pivoting rear wing, also known as the Macarena wing, Red Bull suffered two separate issues at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone. Those failures led the team to leave the device off both RB22 cars in Belgium. For more on the earlier situation, see our report on why Red Bull considered abandoning the Macarena rear wing.
Pierre Waché explained that Red Bull has now found the problem that caused the wing to lock during its previous outings. Work is under way to implement the required countermeasures, with the objective of bringing the wing back for the next race weekend at the Hungaroring.
“It was a mechanical problem that we found after the incident at Silverstone. We fixed it and we are trying to make it bulletproof before putting it back on the car. The wing should be ready for Hungary.”
“We managed to understand the problem after Silverstone. It partly involved the actuator as well. Now everything is clear. We looked at the wing and we know what happened. We also know how to fix it. Now we just have to work to make sure it is ready and super reliable.”
Pierre Waché confirms FIA involvement
The actuator was only part of the problem, although Pierre Waché did not wish to provide further details about the issues that affected the RB22 pivoting wing.
“I mentioned the actuator, which was part of the problem, but I cannot be more precise about what we are doing because it is part of the benefits that the pivoting wing brings. Using it is a performance benefit. But we have taken what happened very seriously. We are talking with the FIA because it is in our interest to make the car safe. We have strengthened the components and you will soon see it return to the car.”
“We have to show the FIA what we have done. It is in our interest to be very cautious. We do not want to take any risks. We want to be 100 per cent sure that everything is fine. We will test it again on the car in Budapest.”
Red Bull’s decision to wait until Hungary underlines the priority placed on reliability and safety before the updated device returns. The situation is also part of the wider technical discussion at Spa, where teams have brought a range of aerodynamic solutions for the Belgian Grand Prix, as covered in this Spa pit-lane technical analysis.
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