With the engines off for the summer break, rumours have multiplied, sparking a series of insinuations according to which Red Bull would have used an asymmetric braking system that would have allowed the RB20 to have a single-seater with rear-wheel steering until the Chinese GP, such as to facilitate cornering, removing the endemic understeer that characterises current ground effect cars, by locking the inside wheel more to facilitate steering with a smaller steering angle.
Authoritative signatures and newspapers have spent time explaining how the braking system would have made Red Bull unbeatable in the first part of the season, until an intervention by the FIA blocked this solution. All colossal lies.
The technical commissioners of the International Federation have never found devices that allowed the braking to be distributed differently within the same axle, simply because this would have been something prohibited by the regulations.
Speculation about the RB20 has increased since the FIA published on July 31 a regulation change that was approved by the latest World Motor Sport Council. In the 2024 Technical Regulations, Article 11.2.1 on brakes states: “The braking system must be designed so that, within each circuit, the forces applied to the brake pads are of the same magnitude and act as opposing torques on a given brake disc. Any system or mechanism capable of systematically or intentionally producing asymmetric braking torques on a given axle is prohibited.”
The rule change was made possible thanks to the unanimous approval of the ten teams, a sign that no team had already experimented with something that could allow asymmetric braking, taking up a concept that McLaren had cleverly used in 1997 and 1998 before it was banned.
McLaren MP4-13: Here’s the Third Brake Pedal Used in Early 1998 and Then Banned
Photo by: George Piola
An FIA spokesperson told Motorsport.com: “It is not true that a team could have used such a system.” In short, Red Bull has not used asymmetric braking, so its recent problems do not stem from a sudden inability to exploit an illegal concept.
It is correct to explain, then, why the FIA has decided to change Article 11.1.2 of the 2024 Technical Regulations by integrating the original text which simply explained that the forces applied to the brake pads had to be equal on both sides of the caliper.
This formulation already avoided strange interpretations on asymmetric braking, but the desire to better specify the rule arose while Nikolas Tombazis’ technicians were reorganizing the 2026 rules. The clarification had been thought for the new agile single-seaters, but it was brought forward to this championship with everyone’s consent. Thus a typically summer controversy dies down…
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