FIA says Red Bull bib adjuster case is now closed

The FIA considers the matter surrounding Red Bull’s front bib adjuster now closed in its opinion, as it rules out a wider investigation.

Motor racing’s governing body has acted for this weekend’s United States Grand Prix in adding seals to the Red Bull car to ensure that an adjustment device in the RB20 cockpit that can raise or lower the front bib cannot be used outside the regulations.

That came following suspicions from rival teams that Red Bull could have been altering its ride height under parc ferme conditions – which would be illegal.

However, having conducted a thorough examination of the Red Bull system over the Austin weekend, the FIA says it is satisfied that the measures it has in place mean there can be no rule breach.

While the governing body admits that it is impossible to be sure that Red Bull never used the device illegally in the past, it does not think it practical to dig any deeper into the matter.

The FIA’s head of single-seater matters Nikolas Tombazis said: “Honestly, can I say with complete certainty about whether there's ever been anything irregular? No. Can I say that the matter is closed? Yes, absolutely.”

Nikolas Tombazis, Head of Single Seater Technical Matters, FIA

Photo by: Mark Sutton

While McLaren has called on the FIA to investigate further whether Red Bull used the device in the past, Tombazis said that there was no realistic way to find answers as to what happened historically and the federation sees no reason to launch any further action simply based on suspicion from competitors.

“To go and retroactively actually prove exactly what has happened before is difficult, and we don't think we have the ability to go and investigate two years’ worth of situation,” he said.

“Generally, when we decide to escalate the matter, and to go to the stewards or tribunal or whatever, we want to have some reasonable indication - so not based on hearsay or just speculation.

“As the design is not illegal, we believe that the correct action is to say: ‘Well, okay, certain things need to happen in order to guarantee there's no ongoing sort of concern.’ But we also have to also draw a line in time and say that there are certain things we can't go into much more detail [with].”

Tombazis said it was not realistic to think that analysis of garage CCTV images that the FIA captures from each weekend would yield any evidence of the team altering the device.

“People are allowed to check things on the car, and it's a matter of how easy that is,” he said.

“If you have to dismount the whole bodywork and do 50 things, then obviously it would be visible in the camera. But on something as simple and as quick as that, I don't think you can realistically check that on cameras or virtual images or so on.”

Christian Horner, Team Principal, Red Bull Racing, Helmut Marko, Consultant, Red Bull Racing, talk in the garage as mechanics work on the car of Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

While some senior paddock figures have suggested that the FIA should formally speak to Red Bull staff, or seek potential whistleblowers, to be totally sure it was never used in the past, Tombazis does not see that as a route worth pursuing.

 “We need to always consider that we're dealing with humans,” he said. “We're dealing with humans changing conditions: with loyalties - old loyalties, and new loyalties. So, one has to be a bit careful about how you escalate that.

“We also don't want to be fitting lie detectors on people and doing interrogations under bright lights, or something like that. That is not what we want to do here.

“I've obviously worked in the past in teams, quite a lot, and I've employed people from other teams. I think there's sometimes a tendency to say, well, where I came from, we were doing XYZ.

“And sometimes one has to really interpret these comments very, very carefully. You cannot just base an escalation on a few comments like that.”