Red Bull team boss Christian Horner insists the FIA’s new techniques on curved wings and terrain have played no role in the difficulties faced by the team’s RB19 in Singapore.
Red Bull entered last weekend’s circular race at Marina Bay hoping to maintain its record of impeccable F1 wins this season.
Instead, the Milton Keynes-based team suffered a veritable collapse in qualifying, leaving it on race day and with a car inexplicably uncompetitive with its same old rivals.
Coincidentally, Red Bull’s dramatic speed drop in Singapore occurred when the FIA introduced stricter controls related to wing flexibility and ground deflection, as announced in the past through the governance framework in newer technical rules sent to F1 teams.
So in the paddock it was thought that Red Bull’s crash was not accidental. But Horner dispelled any correlation between the latest FIA TDs and the RB19’s declining performance, insisting the team had not replaced a single detail of its car because of the rules. .
“It’s all about engineering. There is no silver bullet in this sector,” Horner quoted Motorsport. com as saying.
“I know everyone would like to blame the TD, but unfortunately we can’t even blame it as it didn’t adjust any component of our car. Zero. “
Horner’s comments were supported by McLaren’s Andrea Stella, who also doubted the effect of the rules on Red Bull’s car in Singapore given the scale of its functionality deficit.
“I don’t know if Red Bull has been affected by the TD or not,” he said.
“But I would say that even if there was an effect, that effect wouldn’t be as huge as the functionality deficit that meant they were left out of the third quarter.
“So I rule out that this is the only explanation for why: if it’s an explanation for why. “
Even its main rival, Mercedes, which in 2015 experienced an unexplained drop in functionality at Marina Bay, is wary of the possible causal effect of the guidelines.
“We were in Singapore with a dominant car and we weren’t going to succeed,” Wolff said.
“But it’s very difficult. Now we have a knowledge set [the Singapore GP] and then we move to a completely different track where that plays an important role. So let’s wait. “
Horner pointed to configuration issues that pulled the RB19 out of its optimal operating window as the maximum likely cause of the team’s sudden crash.
“We knew coming here we expected a closer competition,” he said. “But I think we were a little surprised at how far we were on Friday.
“I think we just weren’t in the right operating window for the car, especially on a single lap. And when we’re not there, the tires are horrible. It just doesn’t work out. “
“I think our simulation before the weekend didn’t lead us to the right conclusion. Then you have to get out of there. “
“I think we ended up in the window and that revealed some of the weaknesses of the car.
“But it’s been a very useful lesson for next year, because it provides us with some very useful data and some things that we hope to be able to tackle in our RB20. “
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