As the defending World Champions of Formula 1, Christian Horner‘s Red Bull has been going strong in the 2024 season as well. But reports claim the performance of the RB20 does not come to the team’s RB19 which stole hearts last season.

While Max Verstappen still won the race that recently occurred in Canada, his gap to Lando Norris was a mere 3.879s. This goes to show that Red Bull’s rivals are closing in from different directions. However, the Austrian outfit refuses to believe its rivals are catching up without using some ingenious tactics. For this reason, Red Bull has decided to go after the other three teams in the current top 4 in F1–Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes.

The complaint that Christian Horner’s squad has made to the FIA is that those three teams are currently using flexi-wings. These are a set of modified front wings that are no longer permissible in Formula 1 now. If indeed a team uses this technology, the front wings of their cars can be flexed to a degree that is not permitted under the FIA regulations, and this can give them a notable advantage in terms of speed.

Following the news of Red Bull’s complaints the fans took digs at the Austrian team since they believe the complaints are just excuses to make up for the fact that the Red Bull personnel are afraid of losing their top position. Now, what did the seasoned F1 pundit Matthew Somerfield have to say about this flexi-wing saga?

The onus lies on Red Bull to improve

In the last couple of seasons, Red Bull has become the most formidable force in Formula 1. But they have had their fair share of run-ins with the FIA for going against some rules such as surpassing the cost cap in 2021. And even though this has led people to think Red Bull often bends the FIA regulations, the team has now claimed it is their rivals–Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes  who are doing it.

Matthew Somerfield spoke on the complaint put forward by the Milton-Keynes-based outfit that all three teams are using illegal front wings. Sommerfield said on the Missed Apex Podcast, “Anything that passes the tests that are instructed by the FIA in the static tests is fine. The FIA [also] has other ways of testing whilst they’re on the circuit now with the highspeed cameras, etc that are mounted on the cars. So, they will know if this [use of flexi-wings] is happening. Technical Directive 18 last year stayed a lot of teams in this respect but it appears that other teams have gone on top of it and have found ways around it. So, to try to mitigate that with another Technical Directive or Regulation Change could be very difficult. So, my response would be–just do better because that’s what Formula 1’s about.”

Thus, Sommerfield’s brutal warning to Red Bull states the fact that they simply need to do better rather than complain to the FIA. If the team keeps cribbing, it is Red Bull’s performance that will go down in the end–just like it did in Canada as the FIA penalized it for rule-breaking.

Christian Horner’s team invited penalty for performance in Canada

Red Bull is currently seeking justice from the FIA with its complaints against its fellow F1 teams. But following the Canadian GP, it was the Austrian squad that got into the bad books of the rule-making body of Formula 1. This happened because the team had allowed their recruit Sergio Perez to keep driving a heavily damaged car around the race track instead of pulling over by the side.

Had Checo pulled over, the safety car would have come out and Lando Norris might have caught up with Verstappen. Seeing how Red Bull allegedly manipulated the situation, the stewards placed a €25,000 penalty on them and gave a three-place grid penalty to Sergio Perez. Speaking on whether his team deserved the punishment, Red Bull Chief Advisor Helmut Marko remarked that they did not know how damaged Perez’s RB20 was, and thus they had allowed him to keep driving it until he reached the pits.

With Perez’s grid penalty, Red Bull is already at a disadvantage for the Spanish GP. Thus, their complaints against Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes could be a plot to get the FIA to penalize those squads too. Or, it could be that the Red Bull mechanics are actually suspicious of the other teams’ front wings. Do you think Red Bull is justified in making the complaints against the other top 4 teams to the FIA?