Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has slammed Red Bull’s front bib adjustment device as “outrageous”, as he suggested the FIA may yet look further into the matter.
Red Bull was at the centre of technical intrigue over the United States Grand Prix weekend after it emerged the FIA was ramping up monitoring of a system the Milton Keynes-based squad has to raise and lower its front bib height.
While the presence of the device, which has to be adjusted by a tool, is allowed, what would be against the regulations if it was changed under parc ferme conditions.
That is why the FIA fitted a seal to it over the Austin weekend to ensure it was not altered between qualifying and the race for both the sprint and grand prix. Furthermore, the team has promised to make more permanent changes to its car for later this season.
The FIA’s head of single-seater matters Nikolas Tombazis says there is no indication that Red Bull used the device in the past, and so considers the matter closed. However, that may not be the end of the matter.
Wolff, whose team has battled Red Bull hard in the past, thinks the situation is far from acceptable as he hinted that senior figures at the FIA – including its president Mohammed Ben Sulayem – may yet be pressured to take the situation further.
Speaking about the Red Bull system, Wolff said: "My view is, from the distance of what I've seen and what I've heard, it's outrageous.”
Explaining more about why he felt that way, Wolff said that it was highly suspicious for Red Bull to have fitted such a complicated device to its car, simply to help change ride heights in practice sessions.
“I think we're all designing parts that are F1 standard, and that are to the highest specifications that are within the regulations," he added.
“Sometimes on things like aero elasticity, you would probably try to go as far as you can — but there's other things overall and certain parts where you would question why they exist.”
Wolff added: "Why would you design such a thing and put two marks on it for two positions, like you want to [change things]? Is that the precise decision-making [we have] in F1?"
A "Bugs Bunny" tool
Wolff also suggested that Red Bull pulled off a charade in showing to the FIA a tool that it said was used to alter the device. He reckons that the settings could easily be altered in a much simpler way.
“I really like that when they put this real broom [device] in the car to demonstrate that that is the only way of that getting changed! I wonder how long it took them to make this up, and to stick it in there," said Wolff.
One rival team has nicknamed the two-foot long socket that Red Bull showed the FIA a ‘Bugs Bunny’ device – because it seemed such a cartoon-type tool considering the sophistication levels normally expected in F1.
Wolff backed this idea: “I didn't know that in F1, we were using such Bugs Bunny devices. It's not good enough to say that this is it, and we promise that we are not going to do it again.”
And while Tombazis said over the United States GP weekend that he believed the matter was closed, Wolff does not think this will be the end of it.
“I cannot speak for the FIA at all. I cannot speak for Nikolas,” he said. “Obviously, that's something that's been not spotted for a long time.
“But I think the leadership of the FIA is going to look at that, and say, 'What are we doing with this?'”
