‘Nothing to see here,’ claims Red Bull over its cockpit floor ‘device’

The Red Bull-McLaren rivalry was simmering in the Austin paddock, with Zak Brown worried about bib adjustment

FIA scrutineers check the RB20 in Spain

FIA scrutineers check the RB20 in Spain earlier this season. Would they have seen a cockpit ‘device’?

DPPI

Mark Hughes

In Austin there was another regulation controversy between the title-contending Red Bull and McLaren teams, following on from that concerning McLaren’s ‘mini-DRS’ rear wing in Baku. This time it was all about the Red Bull’s front floor bib adjustment.

There was an awful lot of talking and headlines suggesting Red Bull had been caught cheating the parc fermé regulations. This was triggered by an FIA communication to the teams asserting: “Any adjustment of the front bib clearance during parc fermé conditions is strictly prohibited by the regulations. While we have not received any indication of any team employing such a system, the FIA remains vigilant in our ongoing efforts to enhance the policing of the sport. As part of this, we have implemented procedural adjustments to ensure that front bib clearance cannot be easily modified. In some cases, this may involve the application of a seal to provide further assurance of compliance.”

The FIA had issued this in response to a rival team pointing out that the Red Bull had an adjusting mechanism for the bib (the leading edge of the floor) accessed from within the cockpit. McLaren’s Zak Brown went on the offensive, arguing that such a device could allow the floor height to be changed between qualifying and race (which would be a serious breach of the parc fermé regulations).

There was never any doubt about the legality of the mechanism – it is listed by the team on the FIA’s open source parts data, there for any of the other teams to inspect, and the same part has been listed there for three years. The controversy was only about whether the device, because it was inside the cockpit (and not visible to any watching scrutineers or the FIA TV cameras in each garage) would make feasible the illegal changes. Brown speculated that if a mechanic was said to be making changes inside the cockpit for driver comfort (which is permitted), they could actually be altering the floor height.

To alter the floor height in this way on the Red Bull requires the nose to be removed, together with the heel supports of the pedals. An adjusting tool is then inserted from above. The likelihood of this being done undetected is slim.

Afterwards FIA technical delegate Nikolas Tombazis commented: “Can I say with complete certainty about whether there’s ever been anything irregular? No. Can I say that the matter is closed? Yes, absolutely. I do think the amount of discussion about this topic is about a factor of 100 more than it deserves.”