Max Verstappen has flatly denied Red Bull has been running an asymmetric braking system that has been much discussed after a mid-season technical rule change, amid its recent lack of 2024 Formula 1 wins.
The intense speculation arose after the most recent FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting, where, along with other revised regulations and future rule changes, a tweak to Article 11.1.2 of F1’s Technical Regulations was announced.
This expressly forbade “any system or mechanism which can produce systematically or intentionally, asymmetric braking torques for a given axle”.
Because it was a rare in-season enactment, this led to theories arising that one or more teams had been running an illegal system.
Although if this was the case it would have been dealt with via a Technical Directive being released to all the teams – and the FIA also denied any team had been running such as system in Motorsport.com’s exclusive story explaining the situation – there was nevertheless much conjecture that the rule change must explain why Red Bull has only won three of the last nine races.
This was after it had started the season winning four of the first five races, although the statistics are skewed because of Verstappen’s Spa grid penalty, where his chances of victory would have been much enhanced had he started on the pole position he had earned in wet qualifying in Belgium.
Smoke spills from the rear of Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, as he retires from the race
Photo by: Mark Horsburgh / Motorsport Images
Verstappen also likely would have won the Australian Grand Prix during that early run, but for the brake problem that caused his Melbourne retirement, which also added to the speculation about Red Bull’s form considering the rule change.
When asked about the rule change by Motorsport.com ahead of this weekend’s Dutch GP, Verstappen replied: “I don’t know where that comes from. We don’t have that on the car either, so we don’t worry about it, to be honest.”
Pressed on if Red Bull had ever run anything like such a system so far in 2024, Verstappen said: “No.”
Verstappen also confirmed that Red Bull had conducted a full evaluation of the state of its RB20 challenger during the recent mid-season summer break, as it works to understand how it has lost its previously dominant position and can now still secure another world title double in 2024.
“Absolutely, it did happen,” he said. “We are obviously working flat-out on that and hopefully we will get to see some answers this weekend.
“From there we’ll go forward, to see what we can still find and what we can improve on the car.”
Verstappen said “that’s not the case” when Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko’s recent reference to “downgrades” being applied to the RB20 since the start of the season was put to the Dutchman.
“But of course you analyse a lot of things and from there you come up with adjustments,” he added. “That process starts here in Zandvoort.”
