The Red Bull mechanics have been spotted making repairs to the rear wing multiple times this season. In the second training session held on Friday in Qatar, there was a problem with the rear wing and the mechanics once again took action on the DRS activation system.
The problem was easy to spot because when DRS was activated while the car was on the track, the upper part of the rear wing swayed excessively at high speed. In Qatar, this problem occurred with Sergio Perez’s car, and the Mexican driver wasted time in the garage for repairs.
This isn’t just causing problems with the DRS mechanism. Several times in recent races, Red Bull has had to repair pressure cracks in different parts of the wing.
This may be happening as constrained parts that are used on a busy schedule and under budget reach the end of their life cycle. However, on the other hand, these problems may also be caused by the settings used by the team to get extra performance from DRS and the limits of the homologation process.
DRS – or the rear wing tuning system as it is called in the technical rules – was one of the parts that was frozen entering 2021. Two options were allowed to be approved for different downforce levels.
Red Bull Racing RB16B DRS comparison
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
To be able to redesign this part in 2021, teams would have to use improvement tokens on it, and Red Bull, as you may recall, used 2 upgrade rights for the new gearbox pulley.
So it’s very likely that this problem will continue until the end of the season because the team has to work with what they have while looking for minor performance under the current rules.
However, Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff, speaking to Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle ahead of the Brazilian GP, pointed out that Red Bull has solved all the problems it had on its rear wing in America, Mexico and Brazil under closed parking rules.
FIA Formula 1 Racing Director Michael Masi said that they did not take an approach in favor of Red Bull on this issue.
“From our point of view, we approach each request equally and consistently look after each one,” Masi said.
“If we see a systematic situation for a team in a series of events, we ask them to make permanent changes to that piece.”
“There are many things that go into this issue. So, I don’t think there is any instability in this regard.” he said.
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