McLaren is flying high, Red Bull is trying to catch up. Rarely is the technical dominance of a car not met with suspicion from rivals, especially when the performance leap is so significant in a relatively short time. As Oscar Piastri himself pointed out before the last race in Miami, just two years ago McLaren was struggling at the back of the grid.
Two years is a long time in F1, but the English team’s growth hasn’t been linear. Two key milestones mark their exponential progress: the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix and the 2024 race in Florida. This year, the Woking squad was already considered a title favourite by many, but the size of their technical advantage over rivals is even more surprising.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris had to reveal the true potential of the MCL39. The drivers of the historic British team pushed hard to overcome Verstappen’s stubborn resistance, and then did the same in their internal battle for the lead. The nearly 40-second gap they inflicted over 43 laps (Max was overtaken by Oscar at the start of lap 14) is practically an eternity.
McLaren’s secret lies in the tyres
The competition is stunned. George Russell, who finished third, explained that McLaren’s technical edge is too large to hope to make up for with development. George also added that only FIA intervention could change the current pecking order, implying that the TD018 technical directive on front wing flexibility won’t alter the hierarchy.
After all, all teams have exploited front wing deflection while still passing current static tests. So it’s pointless to consider the directive as something that penalises only the MCL39, because the real strength of the Woking car is not in wing flexibility. Its perfect thermal management of the Pirelli tyres, in any weather condition, is its true trump card.
This has been clearly shown in the first six rounds of the season, both over a single lap and during race stints with high fuel loads. Already last season there were growing speculations about special tricks developed by McLaren engineers to control tyre temperature. Speculations that have never ceased and particularly arouse suspicion from one team: Red Bull.
Zak Brown’s display of confidence
Brown enjoys his team’s dominance while mocking rivals live on global TV, sipping from a bottle marked “Tire Water.” A gesture that flaunts the McLaren CEO’s calm in the face of accusations—veiled or not—from Red Bull regarding water in the tyres. The Austrian team, on the other hand, continues to study their rivals using infrared thermal cameras.
These are devices that detect heat emitted from any body and convert it into an electronic signal, which is then processed into an image. The aim is clear: to monitor tyre temperature management on the British cars in relation to weather conditions, with special attention to degradation.
McLaren’s CEO recently expressed frustration over these ongoing insinuations. According to him, it’s a tactic too often used to push the FIA to scrutinise technical solutions that are borderline or potentially illegal. Just like what happened in Miami.
Brown’s deterrent
According to the American manager, team complaints should be subject to stricter regulations. Essentially, any FIA investigation triggered by one or more teams should incur additional costs for the “prosecutor” if, as happened in Florida last weekend, the complaint turns out to be unfounded after the FIA’s checks.
Brown believes that this cost should be deducted from the budget cap of the team that initiated the protest. A deterrent measure to put an end to speculation over the legality of the dominant car. A regulated process that activates FIA intervention not through “whistleblowing,” but only on the basis of unequivocal evidence. The proposal could discourage teams from making baseless accusations.
The feeling is that McLaren has identified a new grey area in the technical regulations that allows it to remain fully compliant. Rivals have understood the trick but are unable to replicate it and, as often happens, are calling on the FIA to cut down the edge cleverly found by opposing engineers. In the meantime, Brown calmly drinks from his branded bottle…
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