The 2024 Formula One season began as the last one ended. Red Bull and Max Verstappen looked unstoppable as the triple world champion qualified on pole for the season opener in Bahrain and claimed victory from his team mate by 22 seconds.
Next time out in Jeddah was a similar story. Verstappen claimed pole and the victory with Perez ahead of the rest of the field. Then came the third round in Melbourne and Max led off the line from pole position but came under pressure from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz on Lap 2 and was overtaken after the Dutch driver had a wobble through Turn 3 that put him in the clutches of the Spaniard.
Clearly Max was struggling with the balance of the RB20 due to the brakes which became evident towards the end of the lap as smoke began to emerge.
Mysterious brake fire in Melbourne
Now behind Sainz, Verstappen began to fall through the field and the Dutch driver pitted knowing he was in trouble. At the entrance to the pit lane the right rear wheel hub exploded as the inferno behind the tyre cooked vital components of the braking system.
Ironically, this was the first retirement suffered by Max since the sae race the previous year. It ended another remarkable run of Grand Prix wins as the Red Bull driver was closing in on a tenth consecutive victory.
As the Melbourne race continued, Verstappen explained to the assembled media that the problem felt like a handbrake was being applied by the car. Charles Leclerc had reported something similar earlier in Bahrain and so Brembo initiated an investigation into whether their was a failure on their part.
They later issued a statement: ”After an investigation at each team, the problems that Leclerc and Verstappen had are not related to Brembo component anomalies or material malfunctions.
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In both case the problem came from a wrong setup/team choice regarding the car configuration (but we don’t have more details, this is the teams’ information) so there is not a direct Brembo responsibility on both car problems.”
In China again Max was complaining about the brakes although this time the matter was resolved and he went on to win the Grand Prix.
Ex-Ferrari boss and F1 commentator Peter Windsor now believes Red Bull were running “a clever cross-brake inertia valve before they were obliged to remove it before Miami,” he posted on twitter today. This trick in effect would give assisted steering into a corner
The reason Windsors suspicions have arisen is because there has been a surprise FIA mid-season change to the car design regulations. These will come into force for the Dutch Grand Prix in two weeks time.
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Suspicions of Red Bull brakes doing some steering
F1 tech guru Craig Scarborough also posted: “This makes sense and underlined by the tech reg change. A return of the Newey fiddle brake, but automatic & creating a turning moment with the rear brakes.
A simple weighted valve in the rear brake splitter could do this altering the effort between the callipers as the car turns.”
Yet Article 11.1.2 which deals specifically with the brakes on an F1 car already states: “The brake system must be designed so that within each circuit, the forces applied to the brake pads are the same magnitude and act as opposing pairs on a given brake disc.”
So if this is the case and Red Bull have been using the brakes to steer the car, its clearly illegal and was so when the RB20 was designed.
To suit Max driving style
The FIA modification to the regulations in question does in fact concern Art. 11.1.2 (“Brake System”), which now adds to the above. “The braking system must be designed so that, within each circuit, the forces applied to the brake pads are of the same magnitude and act as opposing pairs on a given brake disc.”
Asymmetric braking also allows a team to address the conflict between low speed understeer and high speed oversteer with greater force being applied to the outer calliper which would reduce understeer.
Given the Max Verstappen’s driving style sees him prefer a car which oversteers, this would seem to in line with a Red Bull to development plan. The world champion prefers to hustle the car through the slower corners believing this helps him find lap time where those who drive the corners more smoothly do not.
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Verstappen explains
In relation to the overweight RB18, Verstappen had this to say about his driving style and understeer.
“Well, now it was just related to the weight of the car,” he said. “Being really overweight created an understeering balance and once we started to get rid of that, it started to be more agile again.
“Not just twitchy but more agile. You could really use the front end. At the end of the day, that’s also how you really drive a fast car. A car cannot be fast with understeer. It’s impossible. Especially with the tyres we had this year being a bit more understeer limited as well. You cannot have a car like that.”
Since the alleged removal of the system for Miami, Verstappen was won just three of the nine Grand Prix held
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Alonso retirement date set, says Briatore his manager – Fernando Alonso is an enigma amongst the pantheon of Formula One drivers. He is way down the list of oldest F1 drivers most of whom raced in the 1950’s and 60’s yet at age 43 he has chance of becoming the fifth oldest driver to win a Grand Prix.
That record is held by the legendary Jack Brabham who won his final race age 43 years, 339 days in the 1970 South Africa Grand Prix. Fernando will be over 45 when he completes his newly signed contract with Aston Martin and with Adrian Newey reportedly joining the Silverstone based team, the Spaniard will have high hopes of one last hurrah.
Fernando stands as the most experienced driver in F1 history, having made a total of 391 grand prix starts since his debut with Minardi in 2001. And with ten Grand Prix remaining this year and another 48 scheduled until the end of 2026, the Spaniard has the opportunity to extend this run to a whopping 499 starts at the pinnacle of motorsport… READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
So, what this article is saying is that Red Bull have been using an outlawed, illegal system since the cars introduction and they are now being allowed to get away with it, You cannot make this sh*t up!
Every single result from the races should be cancelled and removed. This isn’t policing by the FIA, it just seems as if they are frightened of either Helmut Marko, Christian Horner, Max Verstappen or Red Bull as a whole.
It’s and they’re pathetic.
This article says someone suspects and it also says a Newey design to the regs is basically a cleaver way to interpret the regs. And as its what the designer is there for like all other mid season reg changes because the FIA think they need to rewrite a reg someone has got the better of it’s not the first and it won’t be the last Mercedes had a few things they had to change because of mid season reg chanes and Williams and I’m sure all the teams over the years so maybe we should go back and change all the results over the years it would maybe change a few world championship results constructor and driver. Mid season changes always affect a team it doesn’t mean they are cheating most of the time it’s that they have interpreted the rules in a slightly different way to the other teams if they all had it would the rules change NO.
Er, Frank, I presume you’re joking. Horrible is an adjective not an adverb. The correct word in your sentence should be horribly. Alternatively you could have written, ‘what a horrible article’ and left out ‘written.’