Red Bull could park trick wing for Spa after Verstappen incidents
Red Bull has not ruled out going back on its 'upside down' - or 'Macarena' - rear wing in the wake of a second rear wing failure in as many races.
Max Verstappen crashed on his final flying lap in qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix when his rear wing didn't close properly, and the result was the same while Verstappen was running fourth and crashed at Copse in Sunday's British Grand Prix, although both Red Bull and Verstappen say the exact cause was different.
Verstappen was understandably angry at his back-to-back failures resulting in high-speed crashes, saying: "It's super dangerous, because you can really hurt yourself, two times. I was lucky in Austria, I was lucky here, but that's why you get really fed up with it."
Red Bull's team boss Laurent Mekies cut an apologetic figure as he faced the media following the race.
"Look, he's right not to be happy," said Mekies.
"It is very unpleasant for drivers to be let down by the car in the high-speed corners in two consecutive races, [whether] it be for two different reasons [or not].
"And it is, in a much lower scale, also extremely unpleasant for us as a group to send our drivers to the gravel trap.
"I have no doubt that as a team we'll put in place what is necessary for that not to happen again, even if we fail to do that today.
"And we take that as seriously as one can do, and therefore the minimum that Max can feel today is being unhappy."
Mekies refused to discuss the details of the failures, but did confirm that the wing failed to close properly again in Silverstone, adding: "Whether or not the failure is different doesn't really matter - we are going to review the full area to make sure we leave zero chance for that to happen again".
The Race's Jon Noble asked Mekies if ensuring that 'zero chance' could mean reverting to the more conventional rear wing used by all teams apart from itself and Ferrari, which also uses the upside-down wing. McLaren has a version - but is yet to race it.
"The answer, Jon, is that we will do whatever is necessary to be on the safe side," Mekies insisted.
He added: "We have raced quite a few races with that concept now.
"We have raced this since Miami. There have been a number of races, so it's too early in the analysis to establish whether it's an issue with the concept or something else.
"But we are going for sure to leave no stone unturned when it comes to it, and we have all the options open."
Red Bull has until July 17 to solve its issue, when F1 returns to the track at Spa. An ill-functioning rear wing is never ideal but Spa presents a particular stress test with its high speeds.
