Tensions between championship rivals McLaren and Red Bull have flared again in Miami, with McLaren playfully mocking Red Bull's suspicions about their tyre management techniques.
The rivalry between team bosses Zak Brown and Christian Horner, known for their frosty relationship, has intensified amid ongoing technical disputes, particularly over flexible wings in the recent past.
But Red Bull's latest scrutiny has focused on McLaren's exceptional tyre performance, which has helped the Woking team lead and potentially dominate the championship.
Speculation emerged that McLaren might be injecting water into Pirelli's tyres to optimise heat management. In a light-hearted rebuttal, McLaren CEO Zak Brown was seen sipping from a water bottle labelled "Tyre Water" during a Miami media session.
Red Bull, undeterred, has employed thermal imaging cameras to analyse McLaren's pitstops, noting anomalies in tyre temperatures. According to Auto Motor und Sport, at hot races like Bahrain and Jeddah, thermal images revealed unusually cool (blue) patches around McLaren's brake vents, contrasting with the warmer (orange and red) readings from other teams' cars.
"It's impossible that you can cool so well with air alone," a Red Bull source claimed.
Brown, however, dismissed the water-injection theory as "ludicrous."
On the track, Max Verstappen, who arrived in Miami just three hours before Friday practice after the birth of his daughter Lily "a few days" ago in Monaco, found his Red Bull equipped with a new floor, unlike teammate Yuki Tsunoda's car.
Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko commented to Servus TV, "Tsunoda doesn't have the new floor yet. Compared to Yuki, Max has less understeer, but he still has understeer. But we can see that we have taken the right direction."
Addressing the performance of the leading Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli and McLaren's cars, Marko noted, "They have new engines. A new engine always delivers more power, and that apparently worked out well for them here."
When asked about Verstappen's new fatherhood, Marko was dismissive, stating, "These are Max's private matters. It's nice that he has a child, but this has nothing to do with motorsport."
