'That's why Red Bull had to drive with an old rear wing'
- GPblog.com
Mercedes' rear wing is the subject of much debate, but Red Bull Racing is also discussing that part of the car. The Austrian racing team has had problems with the DRS dam of the RB16B over the last three Grands Prix. The mechanics have had to work on the rear wing on a regular basis because it moves at high speed. According to Allard Kalff Max Verstappen will not drive with the latest specification of the rear wing.
"Red Bull has a mega problem," starts Kees van de Grint at Slipstream. "They can't actually use the ideal wing for this circuit, for example. They have to revert to a wing that you don't actually want to use. That is a pity. How they are going to solve that is a question, but I hope they succeed. If you can't do it now, why should you be able to do it in a fortnight's time."
In Milton Keynes, there will undoubtedly be hard work to find a solution. Kalff explains the current situation."The Red Bull rear wing has a vibration. Which is very annoying, and that's why I'm worried about that rear wing. If it flaps and does that, carbon fibre is not made for that, so that breaks. Then you're really much further away from home, besides the fact that it just costs a lot of speed on the straight. That's why they had to drive with an old rear wing, you have to solve that problem, because if you're going to drive with this rear wing in Jeddah, you're almost out of chances."
Verstappen grabs extra World Cup point
Despite this, Verstappen did a good job last weekend in Qatar, Van de Grint believes. "Then I make a strange comment. Verstappen has not only limited the damage, but has actually walked out slightly. By grabbing that one point, which Hamilton could have grabbed as well, he 'ran out' of two points. He did more than okay, but he was hopeless. He was absolutely hopeless against Hamilton," he concludes.