The FIA, through the words of Nikolas Tombazis, has acknowledged the difficulty in determining whether the engine change on Max Verstappen’s RB21 at Interlagos was caused by reliability issues or performance concerns, and therefore whether the cost should count against the budget cap, as claimed by McLaren.
The saga of Max Verstappen’s fifth power unit used at the Brazilian Grand Prix is far from over. After a disappointing sixteenth place in qualifying at Interlagos, Red Bull decided to replace the unit on car number 1, installing the team’s fifth engine of the season. According to McLaren, the swap was not driven by reliability problems but rather by performance considerations. In such cases, the FIA financial regulations stipulate that the cost of the unit must count against the budget cap. However, it is far from simple for the FIA to determine whether an engine is experiencing a genuine performance drop compared to reference values.
At Las Vegas, Nikolas Tombazis was asked to clarify the situation, but the FIA technical director admitted that the case falls into a gray area of the current regulations. “We do not believe we have the expertise to determine whether a power unit change was made for reliability reasons or if it was a strategic choice,” Nikolas Tombazis said. “In some cases, everything is very clear, but in others it becomes difficult to define the nature of the decision. This is a weakness of the current rules, a situation where financial, technical, and sporting aspects intersect, an area in which we have to accept these changes without questioning the impact they may have on the spending limit.”
Nikolas Tombazis suggested that it is difficult for the FIA to prove that a power unit change was performance-driven. The impression is that the doubts raised by McLaren will likely be dropped, pending the introduction of the 2026 regulations. “Next year, with the strict cost cap for power unit manufacturers, this issue will be resolved, because for an engine supplier it will never be economical to replace a power unit for strategic reasons, as they would have to cover the cost of an engine, close to a million if it is just the internal combustion unit. I do not believe this will still be a topic of debate in 2026.”
Red Bull’s head of engineering, Paul Monaghan, confirmed that the engine replaced in Brazil is still available among the team’s units, suggesting that there were no reliability problems significant enough to make the swap necessary. “I am not surprised that someone threw a ‘hand grenade’ to draw attention to what happened,” he said, referring to McLaren. “If the situation were reversed, I do not rule out that we would have acted the same way.”
“What we did is legitimate. Personally, I could say it’s a gray area, but we justified our choice, and if asked for further clarification, we will justify it again. I don’t want to speculate on how we are managing this matter under the financial regulations because I could be wrong and look even more… foolish than usual, so I’ll leave it there. I can say that the advice we received from Honda was simply to change the engine, that’s all.”
Leave a Reply