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AUSTIN, Texas — McLaren Formula One boss Zak Brown wants the FIA to conduct a “very thorough investigation” to ensure Red Bull hasn’t breached parc fermé rules with its car in 2024, warning there should be “massive consequences” if it has.
Red Bull has faced scrutiny ahead of the United States Grand Prix after talks with the FIA over the design of its front bib adjustment device, which is used to change the ride height of its car.
The system was alerted to rivals through the FIA’s open-source parts platform, where teams are required to share certain designs. Red Bull confirmed it uses the system but denied that it offered any performance advantage or that it was used when the car was fully assembled. It is not possible for the drivers to make the adjustment themselves from inside the cockpit, requiring a mechanic to make the change.
However, it has led to concerns from its rivals that it could be used to adjust the car’s ride height between qualifying, when it is advantageous to run the car closer to the ground, and the race, when running a slightly higher ride height is preferred.
Doing so would be a breach of parc fermé regulations, which forbid teams from making setup changes between the start of qualifying and the race.
The FIA said it would introduce extra checks on the front bib starting this weekend by adding a seal to ensure compliance but stated it had “not received any indication of any team employing such a system.”
Images emerged following opening practice at the Circuit of The Americas of FIA technical scrutineering staff being shown by Red Bull mechanics how the ride height adjustment system worked on its car.
However, an FIA official has confirmed that the same checks are being conducted on all teams’ cars to determine how their systems operate.
McLaren is currently engaged in a close battle with Red Bull for both world championships. The British team leads the constructors’ standings by 41 points, while Lando Norris is 52 points behind Max Verstappen with six races remaining.
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Speaking on Sky Sports F1, McLaren Racing CEO Brown said he thought Red Bull had no choice but to admit the system existed due to the open source availability for the part to other teams.
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur speaks with McLaren CEO Zak Brown at the United Sates GP on Friday. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
He questioned why Red Bull could access the front bib from inside the car when McLaren’s was not designed that way. He said he didn’t think any other team’s device was like Red Bull’s.
“Ingenuity is part of Formula One, and then there are black-and-white rules,” said Brown. “You cannot touch your race car, other than things like driver comfort – they chose their words very carefully, saying ‘when the car is fully assembled,’ but you’re allowed to not have the car fully assembled in parc fermé when you’re working on driver comfort.
“Also, what doesn’t quite stack up is the comment that you can’t modify it. Well, then why does the FIA feel they need to put a seal on it if it’s not accessible post or during parc fermé, then why put a seal on it?”
Brown said he was “very happy” to see the FIA take action on it but felt there needed to be a “very thorough investigation” into what happened and whether Red Bull had breached parc fermé regulations.
“If you touch your car from a performance standpoint, after parc fermé or in parc fermé, that is a black and white material, substantial breach, which should come with massive consequences,” Brown said.
“Touching your car after parc fermé is highly illegal within the rules. So I think the FIA needs to get to the bottom of were they or weren’t they?
“Why would you design it to be inside the car when the nine other teams haven’t? So I think it’d be unfair of me to say… Of course, I have an opinion on whether I think they have or haven’t.
“But I think the FIA needs to be very diligent in their bottoming out (of) whether they think they have or haven’t.”
In a subsequent news conference, Brown added that the possibility of Red Bull having the ability to make the change to the ride height between qualifying and the race “needs to be unpicked.”
“Why do you need to put a seal on something that you can’t get to in parc fermé or post-parc fermé conditions?” Brown said. “I still have questions that I need to better understand.”
Brown added that he was “confident in the FIA’s ability to address it moving forward, and our questions are a bit more what has maybe historically happened and understanding of if it’s been used in an inappropriate manner.”
Asked how long he thought that could date back, Brown said that “as long as the device has had the ability to be adjusted from inside the cockpit is probably what needs to be reviewed.”
“We’re just asking questions, but it’s up to the FIA as our regulator, who do a great job to get on top of it and come up with a solution that is transparent and is satisfactory to all the teams,” Brown said. “I think I’m not wrong in our concerns for what we have seen and heard.”
Teams regularly hold talks with the FIA over their car designs in the event of queries from rivals and their compliance with the regulations.
Following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend, McLaren’s rear wing, dubbed a ‘mini-DRS,’ drew attention despite the design complying with all the FIA’s flexibility tests.
The team ultimately opted to tweak its design and confirmed ahead of the United States Grand Prix that it had “made minor adjustments to all our rear wings since Baku to varying extents to ensure no further issues in this area.” Brown called it a “non-issue.”
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Top photo: ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
