Last Updated on May 15 2025, 10:22 am
Often, if something appears to good to be true, then it is – and this is Red Bull’s position over the McLaren MCL39 Formula One car. The Woking based squad have begun the year in style winning five of the six Grand Prix of 2025 and two of those were uber dominant wins in China and Miami for Oscar Piastri.
In qualifying, Max is King of the hill with three pole positions to his name whilst the McLaren duo have three between them. The recent race tracks in the middle east were thought to favour McLaren, but whilst they delivered victories for Oscar Piastri, the margins were much tighter than was expected.
The key to the success of the MCL39 is how it looks after its tyres. On the resurfaced Shanghai circuit, both Norris and Piastri finished the race with tyres that barely looked a handful of laps old. Of course there is the upcoming FIA technical directive which will kick in at the Spanish Grand Prix where. Number of analysts believe McLaren’s ‘magic’ front wing will be less effective once its flexing is deemed illegal.
McLaren forced to change rear wing
Zak Brown is insistent that there’s nothing concerning the team about the rule change in Barcelona and that their current specification of car will pass the new scrutiny of the FIA officials. However, Red Bull believe expertise possessed by their ex-employee Rob Marshal, may be being put to good use inn this area and when the clampdown comes the drop in the performance of the McLaren’s will be noticeable.
McLaren were forced to change their rear wing after Baku last season, due to flexing which created a mini-DRS effect when their car was at high speed but outside the DRS zones.
Red Bull are also concerned that McLaren are using iffy technology to keep the rear brake ducts of their car incredibly cool. The Milton Keynes squad deployed a thermal imaging camera in Japan which showed incredible differences in temperatures at the back end of the car between the MCL39 and the rest of the field.
This then led to the infamous F1 ‘Watergate’ affair. Red Bull some years ago experimented with using water to keep their tyres cool which was effective until the FIA shut down this practice making it illegal an they have accused McLaren of using a similar process. Zak Brown’s response in Miami was to have the pit wall drinking water bottles labeled ‘Tire water’ to which Christian Horner quipped, “If they need sustenance, we’ll send them a case of Red Bull.”
Red Bull’s wild upgrade for Verstappen at Imola could change everything
Red Bull protest McLaren car’s legality
Red Bull’s complaints to the FIA have led to them being labelled ‘whingers’, yet it now appears their concerns are justified given recent action taken by the FIA. In Formula One there is a tradition of teams reporting each other for potential misdemeanours even using a formal protest procedure to force the FIA to investigate.
This practical approach to policing the legality of the F1 team’s cars grew out of the fact the FIA was under funded and under resourced, but the team’s with a lot more money could invest in investigations of their rivals to then point the FIA officials in the right direction.
The FIA’s technical team is now resourced in a more bountiful fashion, yet it remains the fact that it is the teams who understand the technology in a far superior fashion. So the process of referring the FIA to potential breaches by a rival remains something which is part and parcel of F1.
Speaking on the Race YouTube channel, veteran F1 writer John Noble revealed the theories around the McLaren’s rear brake drum trick and how this helps manage the tyres so well. He also claims the FIA ‘found something it didn’t like’ on the McLaren and confiscated parts for further analysis.
Christian Horner stitch up job, amateurish and a farce
FIA confiscate McLaren car parts
Noble believes this is why the papaya liveried team were not as dominant in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia as was previously expected. Of course Oscar Piastri did win both of those races but the MCL39 was not dominant those weekends with Lando Norris qualifying outside the top five in both events and finishing P3 and P4 respectively.
“Suggestions that they show the McLaren brake drums running much cooler than other teams fuelled wild talk of there being some potential tricks at play,” says Noble. “Various theories have quickly got thrown around as a result, some of which have been easier to discount than others.”
Noble goes on to argue, the massive heat difference in rear brake ducts temperatures between the McLaren’s and the rest of the field was so significant that the FIA were forced to check it out. He argues the team are using a clever kind of carbon weave for its drums which helps leak cooler air onto the wheel rims. Further Note proposes McLaren may be using phase-changing materials to restrict temperature rises and change the direction of the air flow.
Pole position in Italy vital
“And then there have been wild accusations of it blowing vapour inside the drums, which would be strictly illegal, as liquid cooling under the brakes is forbidden under F1’s rules,” Noble adds. “There were also erroneous paddock whispers that the FIA had found something it didn’t like on the McLaren and confiscated parts earlier in the season.
At the upcoming weekend in Imola, much will be decided for the weekend on Saturday afternoon. The Emilia-Romagne track is notoriously difficult to overtake at and as Max Verstappen demonstrated in 2024, pole position is vital. Last year only a stella final push in Q3 from the world champion was enough to dethrone Lando Norris from starting at the very front.
Throughout the race Norris harried the Red Bull driver for lap after lap, but could find no way through. Verstappen came home first in one of the closest races of the year, with Norris just 7/10ths of a second behind.
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Short memories, in 2024 it was Zak Brown of McLaren that complained bitterly to FIA regarding Red Bull, now the shoe is on the other foot?
Redbull are an embarrassment to the sport!
How so? If Mclaren are bending the rules (and not just Red Bull who think so) then there needs to be an investigation. Their leap in performance has always been suspicious.