FIA says Red Bull bib adjuster case is now closed

The FIA considers the matter surrounding Red Bull’s front bib adjuster now closed in its opinion, as it rules out a wider investigation.

Motor racing’s governing body has acted for this weekend’s United States Grand Prix in adding seals to the Red Bull car to ensure that an adjustment device in the RB20 cockpit that can raise or lower the front bib cannot be used outside the regulations.

That came following suspicions from rival teams that Red Bull could have been altering its ride height under parc ferme conditions – which would be illegal.

However, having conducted a thorough examination of the Red Bull system over the Austin weekend, the FIA says it is satisfied that the measures it has in place mean there can be no rule breach.

While the governing body admits that it is impossible to be sure that Red Bull never used the device illegally in the past, it does not think it practical to dig any deeper into the matter.

The FIA’s head of single-seater matters Nikolas Tombazis said: “Honestly, can I say with complete certainty about whether there’s ever been anything irregular? No. Can I say that the matter is closed? Yes, absolutely.”

While McLaren has called on the FIA to investigate further whether Red Bull used the device in the past, Tombazis said that there was no realistic way to find answers as to what happened historically and the federation sees no reason to launch any further action simply based on suspicion from competitors.

“To go and retroactively actually prove exactly what has happened before is difficult, and we don’t think we have the ability to go and investigate two years’ worth of situation,” he said.

“Generally, when we decide to escalate the matter, and to go to the stewards or tribunal or whatever, we want to have some reasonable indication – so not based on hearsay or just speculation.

“As the design is not illegal, we believe that the correct action is to say: ‘Well, okay, certain things need to happen in order to guarantee there’s no ongoing sort of concern.’ But we also have to also draw a line in time and say that there are certain things we can’t go into much more detail [with].”

Tombazis said it was not realistic to think that analysis of garage CCTV images that the FIA captures from each weekend would yield any evidence of the team altering the device.

“People are allowed…