Red Bull Racing advisory Helmut Marko responded to the rumors about Red Bull failing its first crash test and its consequences.
About a week ago, it.motorsport.com said Red Bull didn't pass their first crash tests of the RB20 - 2024 car. The F1 team failed the dynamic frontal homologation test.
What reportedly happened was that the front wing of the car did not absorb energy properly, which resulted in further damage to RB20's body.
This could be interpreted in a few ways. One of them is that Red Bull will now lose valuable money and time while they have to try and pass that test again, losing a bit of their advantage over rivals.
The other perspective suggests it is in the team's interest to build a chassis that is as light as possible so they take advantage of every millisecond that is to be gained by losing weight.
This means the team would go into their first test with a chassis that is on the edge of regulations and might likely not pass to test the limits.
Red Bull Racing's team advisor Helmut Marko was supposedly contacted by F1 Insider to give his opinions on emerging rumors and speculations about Red Bull losing its edge over competitors with the failed test, and he responded:
"Ridiculous. If we had passed the first crash test, there would be a problem. Then we would have done a bad job."
The 80-year-old did not dismiss the suggestions about the failed crash test. Moreover, he confirmed it was his team's purpose to find the limits of their new chassis.
On the other hand, Scuderia Ferrari reportedly passed their crash test on the first try. Could that be a sign that Ferrari has actually failed their mission with crash tests?
Or could it be that these crash tests just get assigned more significance than they actually have in the 2024 car's development? We will find out in a real comparison during the first race of the season in Bahrain.