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Red Bull team boss Christian Horner thinks “moaning” Formula 1 title rival McLaren is ‘lighting fires” with its criticism of RB20’s front bib adjusting device to distract from its own legality issues.
F1’s defending world champion has come under major scrutiny at the United States Grand Prix since it emerged it’s at the centre of an FIA probe into its front bib device that sits behind the pedals in the cockpit.
Red Bull has happily admitted the device exists but insists it hasn’t been used to adjust the height of the floor while under parc ferme conditions.
McLaren wasn’t satisfied with Red Bull’s explanation though, with CEO Zak Brown casting major doubt over its defence on Friday in Austin.
He said Red Bull “chose its words very carefully”, said some of its comments weren’t “stacking up” and couldn’t understand why the FIA was putting a seal over the device if it can’t be accessed when the car is fully assembled.
When asked to respond to the criticism, Horner told Sky Sports F1 the device has been there for “over three years” and can only be accessed when the pedals and other panels are removed.
“Because there’s been a bit of moaning from one of our rivals,” Horner said when asked why the FIA was sealing an area it had no issue with.
“It’s the FIA’s job to look into these things. It’s on a list of the open source components so it’s been publicly available for the last three years.
“The FIA is happy with it, just to satisfy some paranoia elsewhere in the paddock.
“I feel it’s sometimes to distract from perhaps what’s going on in your own house, [so] you try to light a fire somewhere else.”
He pointed out there’s been “an awful lot of noise about rear wings” and that McLaren has had to adapt its mini-DRS rear wing trick.
Brown rebuffed comparisons between the two, saying "our rear wings passed every single test. We've made some small modifications, as have some others. So that's a non-issue". On Thursday Oscar Piastri said McLaren's rear wing was "pushing boundaries" while if Red Bull was using its device under parc ferme that's "breaking the rules".
Horner says the FIA is “totally happy” with Red Bull’s device and has no belief that Red Bull has broken parc ferme conditions.
“We can seal every movable joint on the car because parc ferme dictates you can’t change anything and that’s what parc ferme is there for,” he added.
“We’ve complied with all the regulations and procedures. They’re more than happy with the discussions with the FIA and what’s been shown to them, they’re very comfortable with.”
FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis said it was pointed out to the FIA in Singapore that this is an area that could be exploited.
It had no indication that any team was exploiting it but it wanted to close off a potential loophole in the future: “I think it’s certainly not a story from now on, we’ve done all that’s needed to stop there being any accusations,” Tombazis told Sky.
“It’s a tight championship and people get rather excited about each other’s cars, so we can’t definitively close the previous races or any insinuations between teams in a very competitive environment, but in the present situation, we believe it’s a non-story, yes.”
Brown still believes it’s a story given he doubled down on his criticism of Red Bull’s defence of its device in the FIA press conference on Friday afternoon.
He also said he was “disappointed but not surprised” to read Helmut Marko’s pre-event comments that questioned Lando Norris’s mental strength.
“Lando has been kind of an ambassador for mental health. Toto's [Wolff, Mercedes boss] spoken about mental health,” Brown said.
“So I think it's a serious issue. We've tried to talk about to bring to the forefront and make it OK to talk about. So to maybe, kind of choose to poke at that situation is pretty inappropriate and kind of sets us back 10, 20 years.
“It's all fun and games in how some people go racing and what tactics they use from a sporting perspective. But I thought that one was in pretty poor taste.”
Whether this is the end of the front bib controversy, or not, as Tombazis suggests, it’s clear that the flames of the off-track war between Red Bull and McLaren aren’t going to extinguish anytime soon.
