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By Chris Medland - May 15, 2025, 1:17 PM EDT

McLaren’s run of success brings more scrutiny....

In IMSA the word "scrutiny" is pronounced: "Screw who ever won! WE are the only game in town."

Cast your minds back to the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas last year, and the focus that was being placed on aspects of the Red Bull car design. In particular, it was the device that could alter the ride height of the front of the floor – also known as the “bib” – that was causing controversy, as the likes of McLaren looked to reel in Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship.

Conversely, McLaren had seen rival teams questioning the flexibility of its wings as it moved into the lead in the constructors’ standings, and the Red Bull “bib” situation was seen in some quarters to be a distraction tactic.

What both sides of the coin show is how the frontrunners always find themselves at the center of attention, because if they are quicker than their rivals then they are doing something different. And if they are doing something different, their rivals either know what but don’t think it’s legal, know what but don’t know how to replicate it, or don’t know what is and want to find out.

Given the size of McLaren’s advantage in race trim at certain venues this year, that’s where the magnifying glass has been pointing in 2025.

In the fourth year of Formula 1's ground effect regulations, all of the signs last season were that convergence was going to lead to an incredibly competitive battle at the front between McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari. Three of those four teams are regularly in similar windows when it comes to race pace, but McLaren has often had some form of an advantage, and at times it has been significant.
Then why not swap cars and see how they do? LOL LOL LOL and after a few million dollars of race cars have been totaled into the wall, the secret is safe from everyone.

Miami was the most extreme example, with a one-two and the first non-McLaren car some 37 seconds adrift in third place. And that’s despite both drivers having to fight their way to the front in one way or another. haven't they heard of sand-bagging?

The need to do so is because qualifying has been a very different matter this year, with McLaren taking pole position (including two Sprint qualifying sessions) on just three of eight occasions. Max Verstappen also has three poles, while Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton have a Sprint pole apiece.

How about taking apart each nut and bolt on every car and let your opponent inspect each piece to be sure nothing
sneaks past some cocky jerk weed race official that thinks he knows everything??

So you don’t really need me to tell you that the difference is found in the way that the McLaren can utilize its tires, as it retains the ability to continue at close to the car’s maximum pace for a much longer time than many of its rivals.

That led to some unusual theories about what the team could be doing to look after its tires so well, including a left-field suggestion that it was spraying water inside the tires to keep them cooler for longer. Zak Brown’s response to those was to have some fun on the pit wall in Miami, carrying a massive drinks bottle with him with the words "Tire Water" emblazoned on the side, that he would sip from when the camera cut to him.

Brown’s light-hearted stunt did come a number of months after the accusation first arose late last year, but it’s because McLaren remains in the crosshairs of the chasing pack that is looking for ways to rein it in.

Clearly the McLarens are doing a better job of keeping their tires in the zone. But how? Not with cold water, apparently...the secret must be four color hubcaps! Sure....
And why does the same driver have his name on both cars???? BS BS BS Andy Hone/Getty Images

And the FIA is always listening to theories. Despite the fact the governing body writes the regulations and has a number of extremely clever dumasses policing the different categories of motorsport, the teams themselves have even more resources and expertise dedicated to making the fastest car possible and trying to identify where loopholes may exist instead of butthead officials who don't race and don't know s*** about how to write the race rules.

So the FIA does have to take on board comments from rival teams to try and understand what might be going on up and down the grid, as well as to know when to look more closely at particular designs or solutions.

To that end, the governing body introduced more stringent technical checks in 2021, that allow it to select a car – or multiple cars – post-race and look at components in more detail. Because the cars are so complex, teams are always at the mercy of whether the technical delegate, commonly called "the IMSA quality a-hole race official".....will check certain components or not during a race weekend, meaning it’s a bit of a lottery whether any non-compliance will be found. The more stringent tests increase the chances that something would. ...that's the official BS used as an excuse for not finding anything.

Never mind that it's possible that some drivers are better at not destroying their car during a race on SOME race courses.

After the Miami GP, the FIA honed in on the McLaren, and specifically its brake assembly after suggestions that the tire advantage was due to the team being able to keep sections of its rear brake drums particularly cool. The result was clearance from the FIA that it could find nothing untoward with the McLaren design on Oscar Piastri’s car.

“Subject to these physical inspections were the wheel bodywork assemblies,” FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer wrote. “The following checks were carried out on all corners:

• The compliance of all components with TR Article 3.13 (relating to wheel bodywork)
• Physical checks for compliance with TR Article 11.5 (that states liquid cooling of the brakes is forbidden) on all four corners

“All inspected components were found to be in conformance with the 2025 Formula One Technical Regulations.”

In a sign of how specific the FIA was being about the focus on McLaren, it was one of two cars selected in Miami, with Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari also looked at in multiple different areas, and similarly cleared.

The document is only released at the start of the following race weekend, so it was Thursday morning in Imola when the FIA published its information, but the team itself will have known long before, and championship leader Piastri insists it hasn’t been causing him any worry.

“I honestly haven’t read anything because I’ve not been concerned,” Piastri said. “Maybe next time we’ll put some little figurines in a water slide as well – I don’t know, we’ll come up with something. But clearly it’s all been passed. I had no concerns. Play on.”

Play on is the call, but it’s unlikely to be the last that is heard of the topic given the interest rivals will have in what is causing McLaren’s advantage. And with the front wing flexibility test set to be strengthened in just two weeks in Barcelona, the technical regulations will continue to be a focal point.

Piastri and Brown might be trying to make light of the accusations, but the scrutiny is just what comes with the territory once you pull clear at the front.