The questions McLaren still have about Red Bull’s contentious bib

McLaren CEO Zak Brown says he “still has questions I need to better understand” surrounding Red Bull's contentious ride height device. 

Red Bull admitted on Thursday at the F1 United States Grand Prix that they are the team at the centre of an FIA probe into a so-called ‘bib’ device which rivals suspect could be used to adjust the height of the front of the car’s floor under parc ferme conditions.

The reigning world champions have agreed to make changes to their car following discussions with the FIA but F1 title rivals McLaren are not buying their defence that the device is “inaccessible once the car is fully assembled and ready to run”.

“The only team that has the ability to adjust the ride height from inside the cockpit, whether they have or haven’t, I have no idea, but having the ability to do it, raises questions,” Brown said on Friday in Austin.

“It’s very clear in the regulations and it’s a material breach that if you modify your race car, anything you didn’t get permission on, or driver comfort, is very much against regulations.

“So they’ve decided to put a seal on it and at the same time have heard from the team that you can’t adjust it when the car is fully race prepped. The car is not always fully race prepped in parc ferme and on Sunday morning, so I think that needs to be unpicked.

“Why do you need to put a seal on something that you can’t get to in parc ferme or post-parc ferme conditions? So I still have questions that I need to better understand.”

Brown is adamant a competitive advantage can be gained if such a device is “used in an inappropriate manner”, though he admitted he has no knowledge as to whether Red Bull had done anything untoward.

“If it’s used in an inappropriate manner then it is definitely a performance advantage,” he said. “If it’s not then there’s no performance advantage whatsoever. That’s what we want to better understand.”

Brown stressed he has full confidence in F1’s governing body to address the saga and reach a “solution that is transparent and satisfactory for all the teams.”

“Our questions are a bit more around what has maybe historically happened and understanding if it’s been used in an inappropriate manner,” Brown added.

When asked how far back he expects the FIA to go with their investigation, Brown replied: “As long as the device has had the ability to be adjusted from inside the cockpit I think is probably what needs to be reviewed.”

Brown did dismiss suggestions that Red Bull’s drivers may have had the ability to adjust ride height themselves from within the cockpit, joking: “they’d have to have very long arms to do that.”