According to Red Bull Racing, Max Verstappen's retirement was caused by more than just a “braking problem”. A “series of events” contributed to the brake problem so it would not be a manufacturing defect or quality issue.
Earlier, brake supplier Brembo also stated that an error on Red Bull's part was the cause of the problem that arose with Max Verstappen. Red Bull itself has provided a detailed explanation of the problem that caused his right rear brake to catch fire, but it appears Red Bull is now blaming itself for the problem.
It is suggested that the screw on the brake was not tightened enough, which eventually caused the problem. The problems reportedly surfaced earlier during the race weekend. It all started with Verstappen going off the track during the first practice session on Friday. This caused some damage to the car, so something went wrong with the right rear brake.
“As we often see when cars stop running during a race, a series of events in a certain order lead to this,” said Paul Monaghan, Red Bull Racing chief engineer. “You can even trace it back to when it started on Friday. On Saturday there were some vague hints that there might be a problem, but nothing was clear. So they were different things.”
“If you can stop the sequence, you can also stop the problem. So there are subtle changes to try to stop that sequence during that specific event. That applies to any car, when you have a series of events that lead to a retirement from the race, you try to stop it before it gets on her.
“I wouldn't say it's a specific process or anything like that. Everyone is doing their best to break that sequence.
Looking to future races, Red Bull has already taken various measures to ensure this does not happen again.
“There are some subtle changes,” Monaghan said. “It's actually a long-term process of trying to manage very warm ductwork.”
He added: “It is clear that we want the problem not to happen again, and solutions have been provided since Australia. In the long term, there are additional new components that will address this.
