Red Bull suspects brake-by-wire failure caused Verstappen retirement 

Red Bull believes a brake-by-wire failure ultimately caused Max Verstappen’s retirement from the Formula 1 British Grand Prix. 

Verstappen had run as high as third during Sunday’s race and became engaged in a thrilling wheel-to-wheel battle with Kimi Raikkonen before falling behind the Ferrari driver after running wide at Chapel. 

The Dutchman later dropped out of the points with a spin under braking at Vale and was later seen pulling over to the side of the track along the Wellington Straight after becoming stuck in first gear. 

“It looks like a suspected BBW, the brake by wire system we have,” Horner explained. “So that in turn caused him to spin into the left hander. We damaged the clutch from that point and therefore the car ended up stuck in gear.

“There was a glitch earlier in the race, but it went away.  Once they get the box apart then someone will be able to understand it a bit more.

“It’s a shame because he’d driven a hard race, but today you could just see how exposed we are in a straight line unfortunately.”

"It was quite weird, because on lap one I had a brake-by-wire issue, the pedal fell to the floor in Turn 3 but then it recovered and everything was going fine after that," added Verstappen.

"Then after the second Safety Car I braked for Turn 16 and the pedal literally went to the floor, the rear brakes locked up and I spun off the track. We will now start to investigate what actually happened."

Teammate Daniel Ricciardo was left to rue the timing of the first Safety Car period, having made his second pit stop just moments before it was deployed.

“We lost positions with the Safety Car and we were a bit unlucky there,” Ricciardo said. “We just haven’t had things go our way in the last three races.”

The Australian was unable to find a way past Bottas in the closing stages and had to settle with fifth place.

“We didn’t have the legs,” he explained. “I could get within a distance but then I couldn’t get any closer. Just started to kill my tyres once I got close. 

“The kind of grip I had initially just wasn’t there when we were closer to him. A bit tricky to follow and if we don’t get the exit of the corner they have quite a few ponies.”