Red Bull unclear as to cause of Verstappen rear wing crack

Mechanics work on Max Verstappen (NLD) Red Bull Racing RB16B rear wing before the start of qualifying. 23.10.2021. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 17, United States Grand Prix, Austin

Red Bull mechanics were forced to scramble to make repairs to the cars of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in time for the start of qualifying for the United States Grand Prix.

Following the end of final practice on Saturday afternoon in which Verstappen put in the fastest lap of the session only to have it deleted for exceeding track limits, engineers found a visible hairline crack in his rear wing.

The team strengthened the wing in time for qualifying, and also made the same change to Perez car in the process. Verstappen then went on to clinch pole position while Perez qualified in third place.

Read also: Verstappen beats Hamilton to thrilling US Grand Prix pole

But worryingly, the team is still not sure what caused the original crack in Verstappen's rear wing and whether it might happen again in tomorrow's race.

“There's always something going on,” team principal Christian Horner told Sky Sports F1. “There's never a stress-free session.

“I don't know whether Max hit something as [it was] quite a crack. And nothing on the other car or any of the other wings.

“We got permission [from the FIA] just to beef it up a bit on both cars. We'll have a closer look at it tonight.”

©RedBull

Horner remained positive that it wouldn't take the shine off what had been an impressive result for the team and both drivers in today's qualifying session at the Circuit of the Americas, after a slow start in Friday practice.

"The set-up we arrived at the track with was a little bit out, but I think we just tuned the car in," Horner suggested. "We've managed to improve the traction and we've managed to improve the car a bit over the bumps

"You can see [the drivers'] confidence has just grown and grown so that was a big factor," he added. "Particularly on the mediums. We were debating at one point, would the medium be the better tyre for Q3?

“It was a great qualifying performance from both our drivers, a first and third, it’s a great place to be starting tomorrow’s race," he continued..

"It’s the first non-Mercedes pole here in the hybrid era and the first time we’ve had two cars against one, so another milestone for us.

"It’s tough to follow here and you definitely want to lead into turn one, so at least we’ve got two guys starting at the front of the field. It’s going to be an interesting first corner tomorrow.”

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.