Christian Horner has mocked the rumor that Red Bull forgot to bring a low-downforce rear wing to Las Vegas, joking that these things “could happen” before insisting they haven’t.

From packing the wrong wing to forgetting to pack a low-downforce wing, Red Bull’s rear wing was the subject of varying rumors after a disappointing Thursday evening in Sin City.

Did Red Bull forget to pack the low downforce rear wing?

Max Verstappen was only 17th fastest in the second practice session, a full two seconds behind pace-setter Lewis Hamilton and 1.998s slower than his title rival Lando Norris, who he needs to surpass by three points to wrap up the championship this weekend.

Red Bull lost a lot of that time on the straights, where they were over half a second behind.

Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko revealed that the RB20 did not have the right wing for the circuit.

“We don’t have another rear wing, a smaller rear wing, like we see with our competitors,” he said Motorsport. “It would definitely be more useful.”

Asked if Red Bull could fly one to the circuit before Friday’s qualifying, he replied: “No.”

But while that led to headlines about the ‘wrong’ wing and even Red Bull forgetting to bring the right one, Horner says that didn’t happen. It’s more that Red Bull doesn’t have an ultra-low downforce wing to use.

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Asked about the rear wing rumor, Horner clarified Sky F1 meant the one who claimed that Red Bull ‘forget it’, the team boss said: ‘Well, you know it can happen… No, we haven’t forgotten a rear wing.’

When asked what the problem was with the wing, he insisted: “There is no problem with it, I don’t know exactly where it comes from.

“But we don’t have a specifically designed wing for very low downforce, which is in principle possible here and in Monza. I mean, the money involved, you have to choose what you spend it on within the cost ceiling.

“So with the wing that we have, you end up having to trim the wings to get to top speed and that’s what a lot of teams have done.”

Horner showed better top speed in Friday’s final practice, where Verstappen was fifth fastest, and admitted: “We are fine. You use different engine modes and the whole world looks very different.

“So yes, we haven’t forgotten our rear wing.”

Verstappen goes into Saturday night’s 50-lap race with a 62-point lead over Norris in the drivers’ championship, while Red Bull sits third in the constructors’ race, 49 points behind McLaren.

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