Whilst Max Verstappen’s drive from pit lane to podium in Brazil was an epic watch, some of the competitors were unhappy with how Red Bull had turned their weekend around.
Following a troubled qualifying session that saw both Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda knocked out in Q1, Red Bull chose to install a fresh power unit in the four-time world champion’s car—forcing him to start from the pit lane. The gamble paid off despite an early-race puncture with Lando Norris admitting had Max Started a little higher up he would probably have won the race.
Red Bull fitting a new power unit which was outside the allocated four for the year was questioned by McLaren’s team boss Andreas Stella who stressed that McLaren would avoid making a performance-driven engine change because of the implications for the $135 million cost cap.
McLaren question Red Bull’s motives
“In terms of performance, I think introducing a new engine nowadays—I don’t know how this works for Honda—but in general these engines don’t exhibit much degradation with mileage,” Stella said.
The McLaren chief went on to query the regulations surrounding taking a fifth Powertrains for performance reasons only. “If the engine was changed for performance reasons, it should go into the cost cap. Let’s see if that’s the case or not. We won’t be able to know—it’s on Red Bull’s side—but this is one reason why we wouldn’t do it, because it would end up in the cost cap.”
Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies was candid about the team’s decision which was refreshingly or recklessly honest. “It’s always good to run a new engine,” he said cheerfully. “We made the decision because Max was starting from the pit lane anyway. To be honest, we were on track to finish the season without needing a new engine.”
Max reports improved vibrations
So the switch was not for reliability issues despite Max claiming there were less vibrations than in the previous power unit as he trundled out of the pit lane to start the formation lap. Nobody really knows how much time advantage a new engine delivers even at the 800m altitude of the Interlagos circuit but it certainly isn’t the order of half a second a lap which is amount the incremental lap time required to make easy overtakes. When asked how much of Verstappen’s recovery was due to the new power unit, Mekies was evasive.
“It’s difficult to quantify,” he said, though the grin on his face likely did the maths for him. Verstappen was flying: smooth, consistent and free of the vibrations that had plagued his older engine. “The extra speed from a new engine usually doesn’t outweigh a grid penalty,” Mekies admitted. “But this time, there wasn’t one.”
McLaren are not complaining about the performance of the Red Bull car in the hands of Max, but whether the rough cost of around $1m would be something which came out of their cost cap budget. Yet under the current set of financial regulations there’s nothing to stop a manufacturer – in the case Honda – ‘gifting’ a power unit to their customer.
Red Bull confident of no penalty
In Las Vegas Red Bull’s chief engineer Paul Monaghan claimed he believed the team will not face an financial penalty for the engine switch and the FIA have now revealed their position over the row between McLaren and Red Bull.
Director of single seater racing, Nicolas Tombazis, admits under the current regulations there is a “weakness.” But further that its difficult for the FIA to challenge claims that there are reliability issues with a current PU.
“What we’ve not been keen to get involved in is a situation where, when there’s an engine change, we have to argue with the team or the PU manufacturer whether a bit of telemetry indicates potentially a reliability issue or not.
“We don’t feel we have the expertise to argue with them whether it’s really a reliability or strategic change. In some cases it’s obviously in one or the other camp. But when you’re in that crossover area, it would be difficult.”
Why the FIA recently changed the F1 driver number allocation regulations
FIA admit regulation “weakness”
The team’s have been aware of the grey area for some time and Red Bull even requested clarification in Brazil prior to making the switch. However, with a cost cap being introduced for manufactures from 2026 onwards, Tombazis believes the situation will resolve itself.
“With the cost cap for the PU manufacturers as well as the teams, this matter is resolved. The PU manufacturers would never find it convenient to make a strategic change, because each time it’s going to cost them approximately the cost of an engine — a million, if it’s just the internal combustion or whatever. And that will provide a natural mechanism.
“So we think it’s a weakness in the current set of regulations, where there’s no PU cost cap. But we think it gets resolved completely next year. It will stop being a topic of discussion.”
“So this has been a weakness in the current regulations — the combination of financial plus technical and sporting — and it’s been an area where we’ve adopted this approach where we accept these changes without getting into discussion about the impact on the cost cap.”
Verstappen v Pirelli: The F1 tyre shakedown
Manufacturer’s cost cap resolves the issue in 2026
These will be the standard costs attached to the following components for cost cap purposes next season.
Internal Combustion Engine – $1 million
Turbocharger – $150,000
MGU-K – $175,000
Control Electronics – $215,000
Energy Store – $215,000
It seems the old rivalry between Mercedes and Red Bull together with the protagonists Toto Wolff and Christian Horner has been replaced by one between McLaren and Red Bull. This particular row stirred up by Zak Brown and Andreas Stella feels like a storm in a tea cup, with the inevitable result of the FIA admitting Red Bull had operated in a grey area.
Hamilton admits Ferrari is ‘broken’
Lewis Hamilton joined Formula One’s most iconic team this year amidst a fanfare of fan support on his first day in Maranello. So serious is the seven times champion about making the right impression he for the first time wore a suit to work.
His Mercedes ex-boss Toto Wolff later joked with Hamilton about the picture which emerged from Italy. “That’s when I told him: ‘I try to get you into a suit for 12 years, and then you’ll do it on day 1 at Ferrari.’ We both laughed a lot.”
The early signs appeared positive for Hamilton as he qualified at the season opener in Australia one place behind his team mate, just two tenths of Charles Leclerc’s pace. Yet in the damp Grand Prix, Hamilton’s once famous skills for classic drives in wet weather deserted him as he trailed home in tenth place, claiming just one point…. READ MORE
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
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How can ANY team be penalised for something that is NOT stipulated in the Rules?
I imagine McLaren just wish they had thought of it for themselves … but they can’t now, can they. SHAME. Maybe it wiped that smirk off ZB’s face – which I would have loved to see!!