Peter Windsor recently tweeted about the possibility of Red Bull using an outlawed asymmetric braking system on their RB20. But it received strong pushback from one of Red Bull’s mechanics, Calum Nicholas, who immediately denied the accusation.
Windsor’s tweet implied that Red Bull was using a cross-brake inertia valve in the rear brakes which might have given their car an advantage by allowing different brake pressures to be applied to the left and right tires, particularly during cornering.
Calum called Windsor’s claims “bulls**t”, arguing that instead of making up conspiracy theories, people should acknowledge the hard work and progress made by rival teams in catching up to Red Bull’s performance in a fair manner.
Looks as though RBR might have been running a clever rear cross-brake inertia valve before they were obliged to remove it before Miami. This could explain Max’s RR brake drama in MEL and his turn-in grief since China. @mollym_o @Racingnews365c @CameronF1TV @mrabdullahcelik pic.twitter.com/C1aa21NFHR
— Peter Windsor (@PeterDWindsor) August 15, 2024
This issue was recently addressed by F1 creator, Tom McCluskey on his YouTube channel. He explained that Red Bull’s dominance in the ground-effect era is mainly due to their technical innovations. Any use of such a braking system should be seen as a clever engineering solution because it was not deemed illegal until after the Belgian Grand Prix when the FIA amended the technical regulations.
“It’s not something that’s really blatantly obvious from the outside looking in. So it’s hard for any of us to comment on whether it could or should have been picked up earlier. But it’s clearly not illegal and it’s clearly not cheating because otherwise they [FIA] wouldn’t need to change the wording of the rules to then make it forbidden,” Tom remarked.
Tom also mentioned that it could have been any of the 10 teams using this system and not necessarily Red Bull. However, Red Bull’s braking struggles in recent times suggest that it could have been the team running the asymmetric braking system.
What did the FIA change in the technical regulations to outlaw this braking system?
The technical regulations initially said that the forces applied to the brake pads must be of the same magnitude and act as opposing pairs on a given brake disc. However, there was no mention of an asymmetric braking system being forbidden.
This was the case even in Issue 6 of the technical regulations, which was released before the Miami Grand Prix. Windsor’s claims seemed to stem from this possible loophole, but McCluskey debunked it by pointing out that the regulations at the time did not outlaw such a system.
However, the FIA eventually decided to amend the statement in Article 11.1.2 of the technical regulations in the 7th Issue. The new rule now states, “The brake system must be designed so that within each circuit, the forces applied to the brake pads are the same magnitude and act as opposing pairs on a given brake disc.”
“Any system or mechanism which can produce systematically or intentionally, asymmetric braking torques for a given axle is forbidden.”
