Red Bull has confirmed it has identified the root cause of the mechanical failures that plagued its 'Macarena' rear wing and will introduce a fix at this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.
Team principal Laurent Mekies revealed after the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps that two separate mechanical issues were responsible for the consecutive high-speed crashes suffered by Max Verstappen at the Austrian and British Grands Prix. The Dutch driver walked away from both incidents but was visibly shaken after the Silverstone crash, branding the rear wing on Red Bull's RB22 "super dangerous."
"It was mechanical, and it was two different things," Mekies explained to media including Crash.net at Spa. "So two different mechanical issues. We will have a fix for Budapest."
Following the Silverstone failure, Red Bull made the decision to revert to an older, more conventional rear wing specification for last weekend's Belgian Grand Prix. The switch paid dividends, with Verstappen returning to the podium with a third-place finish behind race winner Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.
Asked to compare the two specifications, Verstappen offered a wry smile. "You mean the old rear wing? It performed well. I kept it on the road, which I think is the first thing," he quipped. "We were just a little bit more competitive, and the balance was a little bit better."
Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache elaborated on the nature of the problem, confirming it was purely mechanical rather than aerodynamic. "It's a mechanical problem that we spotted after the accident in Silverstone. We fix it. We are trying to prove that we are bulletproof before we put on the car, and it should be ready for Budapest."
Wache insisted that Formula 1's governing body, the FIA, was fully satisfied with Red Bull's engineering approach. "We've proved it to them, what we've done. I think it's on our side that we make it cautious now. We don't want to take any risk, and we want to be 100% sure."
The Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring, the final race before Formula 1's summer shutdown, will serve as the proving ground for Red Bull's redesigned wing. With Verstappen fighting at the sharp end of the championship, getting the Macarena wing back on track — safely — could prove pivotal to Red Bull's season.
Sources
- [Crash.net — Red Bull confirms findings on 'super dangerous' wing as Max Verstappen judges old design](https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1101537/1/red-bull-confirms-findings-super-dangerous-wing-max-verstappen-judges-old-design)
