Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA's boss of single-seaters, says he is satisfied with the handling of the case surrounding Red Bull Racing's front bib clearance. He also clarified that the governing body does not intend to retroactively check whether the mechanism was previously used by the Austrian Formula 1 team.
Why the FIA are satisfied with Red Bull
"We didn't have any clear indication or proof that somebody was doing such a thing," he reiterated the FIA's earlier words to Sky Sports. "We said that from this race onwards there must be no possibility to do such a thing at all." Meanwhile, the FIA has seen Red Bull's mechanism, and the governing body is convinced that the F1 team is playing by the rules.
"If a team has a design that would allow a quick change of [ride] height, it has to be sealed so they could not have access in parc fermé. I think all teams have adhered to that and, as far as we are concerned, that's reasonably under control," Tombazis explained.
FIA won't investigate Red Bull
McLaren CEO Zak Brown said on Friday he was not convinced by Red Bull's explanation and demanded clarification from the FIA. The 52-year-old American believes there should be an investigation into whether the Austrian F1 team had previously taken advantage of the mechanism. However, that investigation is not going to happen, Tombazis confirmed.
"We are talking about a couple of millimetres. We are talking about very, very small numbers. I don't think it's something we can go and check," he explains. The FIA chief adds that there are also no indications that Red Bull has used the device in the past. "As I said, we don't have any indication or proof that anything untoward has happened before."
This article has been written in collaboration with Ben Stevens.
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