Red Bull to change wing after Verstappen crashes

Red Bull are reverting to a conventional rear wing for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix following high-speed crashes for Max Verstappen in the previous two races.

The move has been confirmed to BBC Sport by Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies, who said the team had discovered a problem with their previous wing in tests since the race at Silverstone.

Red Bull are reverting to a wing that opens for straight-line mode in standard fashion, Mekies said.

Verstappen said at Spa on Thursday: “It’s quite obvious why. We will go back on the old one and see whenever the new one is ready again to be used by us.”

Red Bull and Ferrari have this year pioneered a new design where the rear wing opens into straight-line mode by the top flap rotating more than 180 degrees.

This gives a bigger opening, greater drag reduction and therefore increased straight-line speed.

However, Verstappen’s crashes – one during the British Grand Prix and one in qualifying in Austria – were related to the way the wing closed on entry to two high-speed corners.

These were caused by an aerodynamic disruption when the wing was reverting to its cornering mode after being open on the straights.

Verstappen described the situation as “super-dangerous”.

Mekies would not elaborate on exactly what was causing the problem, which is believed to be related to an issue with the airflow not fully reattaching fast enough when the wing closes.

If so, this would cause a loss of rear downforce and explain why Verstappen suffered his spins.

The decision comes after Red Bull ran a short ‘filming day’ test at Silverstone last week.