According to Red Bull Racing, the cause of Max Verstappen’s retirement was more than just a ‘braking problem’. A ‘series of events’ contributed to the brake problem and therefore there would not be a manufacturing defect or quality problem.
Previously, brake supplier Brembo also stated that an error by Red Bull was the cause of the problem that had arisen with Max Verstappen. Red Bull itself provided a detailed explanation of the problem that caused his right rear brake to catch fire, but Red Bull now seems to blame itself for the problem.
It is suggested that a screw on the brake was not tightened sufficiently, which ultimately caused a problem. The problems reportedly arose earlier during the race weekend. It all started with Verstappen going off the track during the first practice session on Friday. This caused some damage to the car and subsequently something went wrong with the right rear brake.
“As we often see when cars retire during a race, a series of events in a certain order led to it,” said Paul Monaghan, Red Bull Racing’s chief engineer; “You can even trace it back to what started on Friday. On Saturday there were some vague hints that there might be a problem, but nothing that really stood out. So they were different things.”
“If you can stop the sequence, you also stop the problem. There are therefore minor changes to try to stop that sequence during that specific event. And it applies to any car that when you have a series of events leading to a retirement in a race, you try to stop them before you get them.”
“I’m not going to say that it is a specific process or anything like that. Everyone is doing their best to break that sequence.”
With a view to future races, Red Bull has already taken various measures to ensure that it does not happen again.
“There are some subtle changes,” Monaghan said. “It’s actually a long-term process to try to manage the very warm air ducts.”
“We clearly want the problem not to occur again, and solutions have been provided since Australia. For the long term, there are additional new components that will address this.”