Red Bull have reverted to a conventional rear wing for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix after four-time world champion Max Verstappen suffered successive high-speed crashes in Austria and Britain.
The Dutch driver slammed the behaviour of his car’s wing at Silverstone as “super-dangerous” after he crashed out while chasing third place.
“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,” he said at Spa-Francorchamps on Thursday.
Ferrari, and then Red Bull, have caught eyes with a novel ‘Macarena’ rear wing that features a top flap rotating through 180 degrees in straight-line mode for more speed.
McLaren have also been experimenting with something similar.
Verstappen’s team boss Laurent Mekies told the BBC that Red Bull had found a problem with the wing in tests after Silverstone.
The 28-year-old driver said after this month’s British Grand Prix, the race before Spa, that “while turning into the corner, the rear wing is not fully attaching, and you lose a lot of downforce for that. You just spin off the track.”
“At this point, it’s super dangerous because I could have really hurt myself two times. I was lucky in Austria; I was lucky here. But that’s why you get really fed up with it.”
Verstappen’s French teammate Isack Hadjar, who did not experience the same problems, said he hoped the ditched wing could return soon.
“I guess I got lucky for two rounds in a row,” he said. “It could have happened to none of us and it could have happened four times to the both of us.”
Spa is a favourite track and almost a home race for Belgian-born Verstappen, who has won there three times.
Asked about his prospects this time, with Red Bull fourth in the standings, the driver left it open.
“Let’s see tomorrow, to be honest. I don’t know how we are going to perform. It’s as simple as that,” he said.
“It’s better not to think about it too much and just go out.”
By Agencies
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