Overhaul after Ricciardo’s final act; crackdown triggers Red Bull switch: F1 rules changes explained

Red Bull Racing has admitted a recent rules crackdown by the FIA has forced it to make changes to its car ahead of the final six races of the season.

Several teams had reportedly raised suspicions with the governing body that Red Bull Racing had found a trick way to change its car’s ride height after qualifying.

The part in question is the front bib, also known as the tea tray, which is the frontmost section of the floor, sitting roughly beneath where the nose cone joins the chassis.

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Adjusting the ride height is banned under parc fermé rules, which come into effect as soon as a car leaves pit lane for the first time during qualifying.

Red Bull Racing subsequently confirmed on Thursday in Austin (Friday AEDT) that its car has been at the centre of the speculation and that it has agreed to make changes to its car after discussions with the regulator, though it denied it had been circumventing the regulations.

“Yes, it exists, although it is inaccessible once the car is fully assembled and ready to run,” a team spokesperson said. “In the numerous correspondence we have with the FIA, this part came up, and we have agreed a plan going forward.”

In a statement the FIA said it had no evidence any team had been breaking parc fermé regulations but that it would be updating its enforcement policy from this weekend.

“Any adjustment to the front bib clearance during parc fermé conditions is strictly prohibited by the regulations,” the governing body said.

“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.”

It is not illegal for such an adjustment tool to exist; only using that tool after qualifying would be considered outside the rules.

Adjusting bib clearance between qualifying and the race could come with potentially significant performance benefits, particularly given this generation of car is extremely sensitive to ride height.

If it were allowed, teams would run their cars lower to the ground for qualifying to maximise performance but then raise them for the race, when they’re heavy with fuel, to ensure they don’t do undue damage to the plank bolted to the bottom of the floor.

The plank physically regulates ride height. If the 1-centimetre plank is worn by more than 1 millimetre, the car is disqualified.

Both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were excluded from the results of last year’s United States Grand Prix for excessive plank wear.

Verstappen has taken eight pole positions this year and was also fastest in qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix before being demoted with an engine penalty.

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Autosport reported earlier this week that teams had been alerted to Red Bull Racing’s possible workaround after viewing the RB20’s design files.

Teams are required to make designs for certain ‘open source’ components visible to all rivals via an FIA submission process. The affected parts are captured by these rules.

Verstappen, who leads Lando Norris in the drivers championship by 52 points, was surprised to hear his team had been caught up in the clampdown and denied he had derived any performance benefit from the trick part.

“For us it was just an easy tool,” he said, per the BBC. “When the parts were off, it was easy to adjust, but once the whole car is built together, you can’t touch it, so for us it doesn’t change [anything].

“When I read it I was thinking about other teams doing it, and then I found out it was related to our team.

“We never even mentioned it in the briefings; it was just an easier tool to adjust stuff.”

Norris acknowledged that teams suspected Red Bull Racing could have been operating outside the rules but wouldn’t be drawn on whether the change would have an impact on the title battle.

“It’s one thing having it on your car; it’s another thing on how much you exploit it and use it, which we have no idea on,” he said. “If it has been helping them, if they’ve been utilising it in the way people think they have, then maybe it will shift in our direction.

“But when you talk about things like that, they’re not going to have got several pole positions or wins just because of such a device. I don’t think it really will change anything in the scheme of things.

“But when we look at maybe certain qualifyings and we look at the gap in certain races this year, when it’s been split by hundredths of a second in qualifying or even thousandths, then you might say, ‘Okay, maybe this has helped in that direction or this direction’.”

F1 DITCHES BONUS POINT FOR FASTEST LAP FOLLOWING RICCIARDO CONTROVERSY

The rules revelation comes on the same day a meeting of the FIA World Motorsport Council agreed to ditch the bonus point for fastest lap from next season.

The bonus point was reintroduced to Formula 1 in 2019 to spice up the sport at the height of Mercedes domination, theoretically incentivising drivers inside the top 10 to push harder or attempt novel strategies to set the fastest lap of the race.

In practice, however, the point has usually been won by whichever driver in the top 10 has had the space behind them to make a pit stop for fresh tyres in the final laps of the race without losing position.

With few exceptions it’s been a consolation point for an underachieving top-10 driver or team.

At its worst, however, it’s been controversial.

The FIA’s decision comes just one race after the most contentious fastest lap in the rule’s modern history.

Daniel Ricciardo’s final act as a Formula 1 driver was to pit late in the Singapore Grand Prix to set the fastest lap of the race. In doing so he prevented runaway winner Norris from scoring the bonus point.

Ricciardo’s act ensured Norris outscored title rival Verstappen by only seven points rather than eight.

The Australian suggested after the race that the late call had been at least in part motivated to help the Dutchman, whose Red Bull Racing team is owned by the same Austrian energy drinks company as Ricciardo’s former RB squad.

“Obviously it’s with a little bit of Red Bull in mind,” he told Sky Sports. “But maybe [it was] to have one last crack at doing a fast one — if it’s to be it.”

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has been vociferously critical of Red Bull’s dual ownership in Formula 1 this season and has called on the FIA to change the rules to ensure all 10 teams are independent.

“No other sport to my knowledge allows co-ownership of two teams that compete against each other,” he said, per The Race, after the Singapore Grand Prix.

“I think the sport, as we’re now in the budget cap era, has moved on to where we’re trying to have 10 independent teams from a sporting, from a political, from a technical point of view.

“I think they are very much playing by the rules. I have an issue with the rules, and believe the FIA needs to address this.”

The World Motorsport Council did not provide a reason for its decision to ditch the six-year-old point, but Norris said RB’s late-race antics in Singapore were unlikely to have been the trigger.

“I know it’s just odd timing and people are quick to jump on things,” he said. “But the circumstance of how it happened is a unique one.

“Daniel knew it was his last race, and I wouldn’t say it’s a nice way to go out, because I don’t think any way to go out is a nice one, but yeah if it wasn’t [his last race] and it was just him going for fastest lap, then it’s a bit more of a question mark and something I think we probably would have questioned more as a team.

“If it was a repetitive thing, if it was to happen again this weekend or next weekend, then I think that’s where we would probably classify it or question it in a much deeper manner.”

The rule has been controversial among the sport for as long as it’s been in the regulations.

Carlos Sainz, who has scored four points for fastest laps in his career, said he was happy to see the bonus abolished.

“I always was of the opinion that it was a not-needed point in the points system of Formula 1, mainly because of how it is achieved,” he said. “Right now that point goes to the one that has a free pit stop one lap to the end of the race.

“It’s not showing who is the fastest guy in the race, and he deserves one point for being the fastest guy; it’s a point that goes to the guy that by chance or by luck or by race situation has a free pit stop at some point of the race.”