Red Bull’s competitors have already filed a protest over the DRS controversially flapping on Max Verstappen’s car during the first practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
With the DRS on, the upper piece of Verstappen’s rear wing, in particular, vibrated erratically along the Baku circuit’s main straight, according to television replays.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted to the fact that rival F1 teams protested against the DRS issue but added that the team is looking for a solution.
“I think they already have… Obviously, we have seen it,” Horner admitted. “We’ve got the data from it and we’ve got the comparison to Sergio’s wing.”
“So I think there are some modifications or tuning that we need to do just to make sure that we eradicate that for this afternoon.”
The irregular flap movements were only noticeable on Verstappen’s car, with Perez, who finished first in the session, avoiding the problem.
“Weight is always a critical factor and you are obviously chasing it all over the car,” Horner said, implying Red Bull had tried a lightweight wing on the Dutchman’s RB18.
“We just need to look at the set-up of it and the rigidity of it and, hopefully, we can get on top of it.”
With Verstappen a third of a second behind Perez and third on the timesheet, Horner insisted the vibrations were “detrimental to performance.” However, this is not the first time Verstappen has had problems with DRS before this season, with the device failing intermittently during the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.
“The guys are into it and hopefully, we will get it resolved for the next session,” Horner added. “It always seems to be on Max’s car for some reason.
“We need to get on top of it. We understood the issues from Barcelona and hopefully, we can tune this out for the next session.”
