The technical war between teams is heating up. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner hinted that McLaren may have circumvented the regulations. Over the weekend, McLaren’s CEO responded in an interview, adding more details.
Accusations had already been made against the Woking-based team during the 2024 season. Opponents specifically believed McLaren had water in the tyres, allowing them to control temperatures and thus reduce degradation.
After six Grands Prix into the new season, those accusations have resurfaced, and the papaya team is now dealing with the renewed rumours. Over the Miami weekend, Zak Brown gave an initial response. The American brought a water bottle to the pit wall with a sticker that read “tire water.”
That wasn’t Zak Brown’s only reference to the accusations from rival teams. In response to the ongoing insinuations from the Milton Keynes-based outfit, Brown said: “This is clearly going too far. There’s a team constantly trying to destabilize us with these kinds of accusations.” The McLaren CEO proposed a solution that could potentially put Red Bull in check. “The protest fee should be high enough to make a team seriously consider whether to actually file a complaint.”
When a team decides to initiate an official investigation against another team, they must pay a certain sum of money, which Zak Brown believes should be significantly high (from $25,000 to $50,000, depending on the seriousness of the accusation). That’s not the only change he would make — he believes this expense should count against the budget cap.
F1 teams have a maximum spending cap they must adhere to. This is meant to ensure greater sporting equality, considering the high costs of car development — something not all teams can afford equally.
“At that point, the accuser will think twice before deciding whether to report another team without sufficient evidence or use the money to develop a new front wing.”
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