Controversy followed on the heels of McLaren’s devastating double disqualification after the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The latest chapter involves a situation from the São Paulo Grand Prix, where Max Verstappen got a new engine after qualifying, which he drove from the pit lane to the podium.
Drama Surges As Red Bull’s Sao Paulo Engine Swap Resurfaces
Following the race in Brazil, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella questioned Red Bull’s engine swap, highlighting the distinction between swapping an engine for reliability reasons and doing so for performance reasons.
“These kinds of power unit changes challenge the regulations,” Stella said. However, Red Bull’s chief engineer, Paul Monaghan, didn’t worry about the controversy, expressing confidence in the Austrian outfit’s decision.
“I’m not surprised someone just sort of rolled a hand grenade into the situation,” he reportedly said. “If the situation were round the other way, we could do the same. What we did is defendable, it’s legitimate, and if you go back through even this generation of car — from, say, 2022 to this year — people have made engine changes, so there’s nothing unusual in it.”
He reiterated that while it’s a “grey area,” their move is justified under the 2025 regulations.
“Personally, it’s a grey area,” he continued. “As far as I’m concerned, we justified to ourselves what we were going to do. If we’re questioned on it, we will justify it.”
The FIA’s director of single-seater racing, Nikolas Tombazis, reportedly stated that the organization isn’t sufficiently informed to get involved in the situation. He does, however, believe that Red Bull capitalized on a “weakness” in F1’s regulations.
“What we’ve not been keen to get involved in, as the FIA at the moment, is a situation where when there’s an engine change, we have to argue with the team or the PU manufacturer whether a bit of telemetry indicates potentially a reliability issue or not,” Tombazis said in Las Vegas.
“We don’t feel we have the expertise to argue with them whether it’s really a reliability or strategic change,” he added. “And, again, in some cases, it’s obviously in one or the other camp. But when you’re in that crossover area, it would be difficult.”
However, the situation is expected to be resolved in 2026, when F1 implements an engine-specific cost cap.
Through the controversy, the 2025 title race roars on, with Verstappen seriously threatening Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s championship hopes.
There are only two races left, and McLaren will have to be sharp if it wants to keep the flying Dutchman at bay.
