Zak Brown, the CEO of McLaren F1, annoys Red Bull throwing allegations at random without any evidence, and that these are taken up in the media or even noted by the FIA. This is why the American used a bottle this Friday on which it was marked “tire water”, after Red Bull relaunched this rumor from last year.
According to Christian Horner, the McLaren MCL39 cools its tires very well, and the Briton implied that the cooling was done other than with the air. A second allegation after that of the fall of 2024, which had led Pirelli to investigate the MCL38 and not see an illegal system.
According to Brown, the FIA should force the teams to deposit formal allegations using an expensive process, in order to prevent teams and their leaders from launching rumors on their rivals randomly and not founded.
“The teams have always allegedly alleged that other teams had acted badly. More recently, a team has focused on this strategy more than others” admet Brown. “I think there is an appropriate way of protesting a team at the end of the race, and you have to present a file; it is formal, you have to disclose where the allegation comes from, you have to put money.”
“This procedure should be extended to all allegations in order to put an end to frivolous allegations which only aim to distract attention. If you were to pay money and put your allegations on paper without hiding them, I think it would be a way to eliminate the bogus accusations that occur in this sport, which is not very sporty.”
“And if someone thinks that there is a technical problem, he has the right to talk about it. But put it on paper, put your money. It should be deducted from your cost ceiling if it turns out that you are wrong, and I think it will end the bogus allegations that emanate from certain teams in this sport.”
-According to Brown, depositing an allegation which leads to an investigation should cost a five-digit sum, so as to oblige the teams to hold back on their allegations if they are not founded. Thus, the choice to get started against an opposing team would only be against a significant sum.
“We are all at the limit of the budgetary ceiling. We will not waste a dollar for anything that we do not think we are efficient, so we would probably take € 25,000. Would I spend € 25,000 for a distraction tactic or for the development of my own racing car?”
“I would spend € 25,000 for my racing car each time. Contesting costs should be set at a level high enough for a team to think carefully about the possibility of filing an appeal. It is not necessary that it amounts to hundreds of thousands of euros.”
“But it must be significant enough for the team to be deprived of performances that it could devote to its car, and so that it is forced to go through the appropriate routes, in order to ensure that it is not simply allegations. There is something serious that is the subject of an investigation.”
In the same way as the tire affair, Brown is confident for the technical directive on the flexibility of the fins which will arrive in Barcelona, and he is satisfied to see Red Bull looking at his team: “This makes no difference for us. We are not at all worried about this change of rules.”
“There have been many suggestions from other people about our car during the past period, and none of them have been correct. But the more they are distracted and focus on our car instead of their own performances, this can only be good for us.”
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