Red Bull Chief Engineer Paul Monaghan has detailed the reason for Max Verstappen’s surprising retirement at the Australian Grand Prix. The Dutch driver had been on a remarkable run of 43 consecutive points finishes, dating back to early 2022. Ironically, his last DNF had been at Albert Park early in that campaign.
By lap 3 two weeks ago, smoke could be seen starting to come out from the right rear of his car, ultimately forcing Verstappen to slow down and box to retire the car.
Monaghan said at Suzuka on Friday that the right rear exit duct did not do its job. With temperatures always a big concern on F1 cars, hot air escaped and cause severe damage to the brake disc. Such was the heat that got on to it, the disc exploded as the three-time World Champion trundled into the pits.
“In summary, the exit duct has failed to hold the hot air. The air that’s caught the disc that’s then quite hot has got out and caused some other damage which we weren’t going to survive — simple.”
In Melbourne, the Dutchman was stuck in the garage during the early stages of second practice. He had a moment at turn 10 in FP1 and damaged his floor at the time.
Monaghan admitted the problems that arised on Sunday could have began on Friday. He also conceded that on the Saturday there was hints that something was up, but it was too unclear to find the root issue at the time.
“As I’ve seen many times when cars retire from the race, a sequence of events has occurred in an appropriate order that has triggered it.
“You can almost trace it back into what began on Friday. Saturday, there were unclear hints maybe there was something amiss, but there was nothing that stood out to say this is going to let you down. So, it was many things.
“If you can stop the sequence, you will stop the problem. So, there are little changes in place to try and interrupt that sequence for that specific event. And it’s applicable to all of the car, in that if there’s a sequence of events that leads to a race retirement, you try to interrupt it before you get them.
“So, I’m not going to say to you it’s a process or anything else. Everybody will do their best to ensure we break that sequence.”
With only two weeks between Australia and Japan, Red Bull Racing has not had much time to try and implement some changes to avoid a repeat of what happened in Melbourne.
Further fixes and tweaks to the parts will be required longer-term to safeguard against this gremlin appearing again.
“There are some subtle changes in there. It’s actually quite a long-term process to try and deal with the hot air ducts.
“Clearly we’re not seeking a repeat, so yes what fixes can be applied since Australia are on and there are more longer-term ones coming as and when we can revise the parts.”
Finally, Monaghan was quizzed on whether he thinks it could happen in the future: “I doubt it, no.”
Despite a tough weekend for the team Down Under, Verstappen still holds a 4-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship, with Red Bull having the same gap over Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship.
