Max Verstappen willing to sacrifice speed after Red Bull’s rear wing scare

Max Verstappen says Red Bull made the right choice by reverting to an older-spec rear wing for the Belgian Grand Prix, even if it is slower.

Verstappen labelled his RB22’s Macarena rear wing “super dangerous” after suffering a second high-speed spin in two race weekends at Silverstone.

Max Verstappen says slower rear wing is the right choice at Spa

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Verstappen spun out of the British Grand Prix when his rotating rear wing failed to reattach properly after a straight-line mode zone.

The Dutchman lost control of his RB22 as he entered Stowe corner and spun into the gravel, where his car became beached.

It was his second spin in as many race weekends, with the four-time world champion spinning as he entered Turn 9 during qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix just eight days earlier.

The four-time world champion wasn’t impressed, “It’s super dangerous because you can really hurt yourself two times. I was lucky in Austria, I was lucky here, but that’s why you get really fed up with it.”

PlanetF1.com has learned that Red Bull has reverted to its old rear wing spec for the Belgian Grand Prix, the pre-Macarena design.

Verstappen believes it is the right call despite the wing being slower.

“I think it’s maybe a little bit slower, but it won’t turn the world upside down,” he told Dutch media as per RacingNews365.

“It was pretty clear to everyone that this is maybe the wisest choice for this weekend.”

He went on to reveal that the Macarena wing would be back on the car, but only after more development.

“Eventually, yes,” he said. “They just have to figure out… I actually think they do know [what’s caused the problem]; you just have to look at how you’re going to find the solution.

“Hopefully the wing is back on as soon as possible.”

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Isack Hadjar wants Macarena wing back on the car, but ‘safer’

Verstappen’s teammate Isack Hadjar did not experience the same issues as the Dutchman, with his Macarena wing functioning as expected.

However, he too will revert to the older spec to be safe.

He told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media at Spa: “I mean, visually, it’s obviously a big change, but in the car, it’s not, it’s less than you might think.

“It’s hard even for us to measure the loss, going back to it.

“So we still reckon to have like similar competitiveness to last weekend, for example, even though it’s definitely a less impressive rear wing.

“But we’re making sure the other one comes back to us as soon as we can and in a safer way as well.”

Quizzed on why the issue of the rear wing not reattaching properly only affected Verstappen, Hadjar put it down to luck.

“I guess I got quite lucky for two rounds in a row,” he said. “So yes, this one was really down to luck.

“It could have happened to none of us and it could have happened four times to the both of us.

“So, on this one, he took it for me unfortunately and to be honest, he’s probably his problem is my problem as well, and we need to fix it.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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