Red Bull pushed to win back curfew ’wild card’

Red Bull worked to win back its second to last paddock curfew ’wild card’.

With the race weekend schedule skewed for the Singapore night race, several teams - Toro Rosso, Mercedes and Virgin - have this weekend lost one of their four ’wild cards’ for the season for working in the paddock outside the allowed hours.

Toro Rosso’s indiscretion was because boss Franz Tost jumped a queue and swiped his paddock pass just before the curfew was set to be lifted.

And for Mercedes and Virgin, it was a misunderstanding, with those teams forgetting that marketing staff are also subject to the curfew.

Red Bull’s is a slightly different story, and significant because - with five races still to run after Singapore - the team has now used all but one of its curfew jokers.

"Nothing is finalised," said team consultant Dr Helmut Marko yesterday. "First we have to find out who it was."

The person who actually cost Red Bull the Singapore wild card was someone with a team guest pass. Red Bull clarified the matter with the FIA in order to not lose the wild card.

"Having questioned the person causing the breach of curfew in the Red Bull Racing team case and heard his explanations, it is now clear, that this person is not a team member of the Red Bull Racing team and is not in any way associated with the operation of the car. Therefore the Red Bull Racing team did not break Article 30.9 of the 2011 Formula One Sporting Regulation," said the FIA this morning.