Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has come to McLaren's defence as Red Bull intensifies accusations that the championship-leading team may be employing an illicit tyre-cooling technique in 2025.
Following McLaren's dominant performance in Miami, Wolff and other team bosses acknowledged that the Woking-based squad was operating "on a different planet." Red Bull has escalated its scrutiny, suggesting McLaren could be illegally injecting water into Pirelli tyres to enhance cooling.
"They demonstrate their superiority on every tyre type," Wolff told Auto Motor und Sport, while Red Bull's Christian Horner noted, "Their advantage is always greatest where the tyres are most stressed."
McLaren CEO Zak Brown responded playfully, sipping from a "Tyre Water" labelled bottle on the Miami pitwall, challenging Red Bull to file a formal protest. "This (accusation) is clearly going too far," Brown said.
"There is a team that is constantly trying to destabilise us with accusations along these lines."
Even Wolff, a close political ally of McLaren, admitted uncertainty about the source of their tyre performance. "We don't know," he said. "But we're working hard on it. We're not just sitting back and watching, but trying to find the key through experimentation and development work.
"We need to find out as quickly as possible what McLaren is doing, because whatever it is, it could still be a winner next year as well."
Red Bull's use of thermal imaging cameras has revealed significant cooling discrepancies in McLaren's tyres compared to other teams. Wolff, however, dismissed any notion of foul play.
"They're not doing anything illegal," he insisted. "Whatever they've discovered, we have no doubt that they're operating within the rules."
