FIA ends probe into Red Bull front bib device - says case is closed

The FIA has officially closed its investigation into Red Bull's controversial front bib adjuster, ruling out the need for further action.

While rival teams had raised concerns about the possibility of Red Bull using the device to adjust ride height illegally, the FIA has concluded that the measures it has put in place are sufficient to prevent any rule breaches.

The governing body conducted a thorough examination of the Red Bull system over the United States Grand Prix weekend, adding seals to the car to ensure that the adjustment device could not be used outside the regulations.

Despite acknowledging the difficulty of proving definitively whether Red Bull had ever used the device illegally in the past, the FIA believes that its current measures are sufficient to prevent any future misconduct, according to Head of Single-Seater Matters Nikolas Tombazis.

“I mean, honestly, can I say with complete certainty about whether there's ever been anything irregular? No. Can I say that the matter is closed? Yes, absolutely,” commented Tombazis, quoted by Motorsport.com.

McLaren, through the voice of its CEO Zak Brown, pushed for a more thorough investigation to determine if Red Bull had used the device illegally in prior races.

However, Tombazis made it clear that going back to prove conclusively whether the team had exploited its system or not would be nearly impossible.

• Read also: Red Bull slams rivals' ‘paranoia’ as FIA clears RB20 front bib device

“To go and retroactively actually prove exactly what has happened before is difficult, and we don't think we have the ability to go and investigate two years’ worth of situation,” he said, adding that the governing body does not launch investigations solely based on hearsay or suspicion.

“Generally, when we decide to escalate the matter, and to go to the stewards or tribunal or whatever, we want to have some reasonable indication - so not based on hearsay or just speculation.

“As the design is not illegal, we believe that the correct action is to say: ‘Well, okay, certain things need to happen in order to guarantee there's no ongoing sort of concern.’ But we also have to also draw a line in time and say that there are certain things we can't go into much more detail [with].”

Tombazis also dismissed the idea of analyzing CCTV footage from the Red Bull garage to determine if any illegal adjustments had been made, citing the impracticality of detecting such minor changes.

“People are allowed to check things on the car, and it's a matter of how easy that is,” he said.

“If you have to dismount the whole bodywork and do 50 things, then obviously it would be visible in the camera. But on something as simple and as quick as that, I don't think you can realistically check that on cameras or virtual images or so on.”

Some figures in the paddock suggested that the FIA should take a more aggressive approach, such as interviewing Red Bull staff or even seeking potential whistleblowers to uncover any past transgressions.

However, Tombazis firmly rejected such a course of action.

“We need to always consider that we're dealing with humans,” he said. “We're dealing with humans changing conditions: with loyalties - old loyalties, and new loyalties. So, one has to be a bit careful about how you escalate that.

“We also don't want to be fitting lie detectors on people and doing interrogations under bright lights, or something like that. That is not what we want to do here.

“I've obviously worked in the past in teams, quite a lot, and I've employed people from other teams. I think there's sometimes a tendency to say, well, where I came from, we were doing XYZ.”

Reflecting on his own experiences working within F1 teams, Tombazis cautioned against over-interpreting rumors or comments made by individuals switching between teams.

“Sometimes one has to really interpret these comments very, very carefully. You cannot just base an escalation on a few comments like that,” he concluded.

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