Horner believes FIA action on ride-height device due to 'paranoia'

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has suggested that the FIA’s action against his team is due to “paranoia” from rivals in the paddock.

The controversy surrounds a device on the Red Bull cars that could allow them to change the height of the car floor. When in parc ferme conditions between sessions on race weekends, alterations to cars are prohibited.

On Thursday, Red Bull and the FIA came to an agreement that the team would remove the device from their cars ahead of the Austin Grand Prix on Sunday.

Horner has argued there is nothing untoward about the device, and the FIA are only acting on unfounded concerns of Red Bull's rivals.

"I think there's been a bit of moaning from one of our rivals," he told Sky Sports. "It's the FIA's job to look into these things. It's on a list of the open-source components, so it's been publicly available for the last three years.

"The FIA are happy with it, I think, just to satisfy perhaps some paranoia elsewhere in the paddock.

"Every car has a tool that they can adjust what we call the front of the floor, being the bib, and ours is located at the front in front of the footwell.

"You've got to have the pedals out, other panels and pipework out in order to get to it. So, it's like any other adjustment on the car. It would be easier to adjust the rear roll bar than it is to get to that component."

Max qualifies in Pole Position for the US Sprint Race Checo will be fighting his way forward from P11. MAX , RUS, LEC, NOR, SAI, HUL, HAM, MAG, TSU, COL pic.twitter.com/QgY2o47SyR

— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) October 18, 2024

McLaren chief executive Zak Brown had previously said he would expect "huge consequences" were Red Bull discovered to be using the device illegally.

Brown's team currently sit top of the Constructors' Championship, with a 41-point advantage over second-place Red Bull.

McLaren are under pressure after Max Verstappen qualified in pole position for the sprint race in Austin, and Horner suggested a deflection strategy from their rivals in raising the concerns.

"I feel that it's sometimes to distract from perhaps what's going on in your own house, then sometimes you try to light a fire somewhere else?" he jibed.