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As it turns out, the reported FIA clampdown on the front bib was aimed at Red Bull, as confirmed by the team itself. Before the F1 US GP, Autosport reported that the governing body was taking action in terms of inspection post-qualifying and pre-race.
It was suggested that one team had found a way to make alterations to the front bib clearance between qualifying and the race. The impact of such a solution could be potentially significant as it would allow teams to run lower in qualifying before raising the height for the main race.
This narrative could be seen to have an uncanny resemblance to the nature of the Red Bull car this season, which has been better over a lap compared to long runs. Max Verstappen went on a stunning run of consecutive poles that only ended in Monaco. Not only that, this was a clear divergence from how the car behaved last season where it was the other way around.
In the entire saga, there are a few burning questions that are worth a deep dive. Let's try to touch on a few of them.
Why the front bib clampdown?
The first question we have partially answered already is that this could help a car be more efficient for both races and qualifying. Whenever a car is set up, there are compromises made to the car keeping in mind the different challenges that it would have to tackle.
If Red Bull was using the solution to alter the height of the front after qualifying, it would make the car far more efficient in tackling the two completely different challenges of qualifying and the race.
Potentially, the team could run the car lower in qualifying than what it would ideally run over a race distance and hence gain an advantage. What the FIA has now done is implemented a seal at the tool that is used to alter the front edge's height.
If a team changes ride height post-qualifying, it would mean breaking Parc Ferme regulations and immediate disqualification.
What Red Bull claims
Red Bull has had a very interesting approach in all of this, as the squad itself made the identity public. The team's spokesperson shared with the media that the reigning champion has made changes to the car in consultation with the FIA. The spokesperson also claimed that the device can be used to change ride height but when the car is assembled, the device cannot be reached and hence the change of ride heights from qualifying to the races is out of question.
Max Verstappen himself sounded unbothered by the change and said that he didn't expect anything to change because of the latest development. He told the media, including Sportskeeda,
"For us, it was just an easy tool when the parts were off, it was easy to adjust," he said. "But once the whole car is built together, you can’t touch it."
Has Red Bull cheated?
Now comes arguably the most important questions in this entire saga. In all this, was Red Bull cheating on all this? The fact that there's potentially a mechanism that could alter the ride height is against Parc Ferme and hence should lead to immediate disqualification.
With that being said, Red Bull and Max Verstappen's stance on the entire situation continues to be that the tool was not accessible once the car was assembled. If that is the case, then the tool cannot be used between qualifying and the race to make alterations.
At the same time, the reason why the FIA appears handicapped is because there's no proof that the team cheated.
This is in essence, a throwback to what happened 3 decades ago. In 1994, Michael Schumacher's Benetton was deemed to have a control unit in place that could be easily programmed to implement traction control, something that was banned that season.
As it turned out, since there was no proof as such of Benetton using traction control, the team walked away and didn't get disqualified. For the Red Bull scenario, there is another caveat, which is the fact that the device is available in an open-source environment for all teams.
Hence, if there were any changes made to it, the alterations would be available for view to all other teams. To add to this, while the FIA had not named anyone when it clamped down on the front bib solution, Red Bull was very quick to come out and say that it was the Austrian team who was making these alterations.
At the end of the day, to answer the question of whether Red Bull was cheating or not is impossible. We do not have enough evidence to claim culpability, and that's the stand that the FIA has taken as well.
It is very easy to pick a side in this debate, and possibly we are going to see the same happen during the F1 US GP. The fact, however, remains that the proof of culpability is just not there unless the governing body uncovers something more.
