Red Bull boss quizzed on Max Verstappen engine as McLaren raise cost cap query

While Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies did not reveal exactly how much lap time the new Honda engine was worth for Max Verstappen in Brazil, he admitted that the F1 2025 grid is tight enough “for everything to be important.”

It comes at a time when McLaren expressed intrigue over whether that new power unit will count against Red Bull’s cost cap allowance, with the The Race reporting that McLaren brought this matter up at Friday’s F1 Commission meeting.

New Max Verstappen engine triggers McLaren F1 Commission action

Red Bull endured a nightmare qualifying at Interlagos, with both Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda eliminated in Q1. That prompted Red Bull to overhaul the setup on Verstappen’s RB21 for the race, and also fit a new power unit. This breach of parc fermé regulations meant that Verstappen started from the pit lane.

It proved an inspired choice, as Verstappen delivered a stunning drive to the podium, crossing the line P3. However, the engine change in particular left McLaren with question marks over how that would be represented in Red Bull’s season expenditure under the cost cap.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella told the media in Brazil that “these kind of power unit changes challenge the regulations”.

He added: “I will be interested in understanding if the cost of this engine now goes in the cost cap or not.

“If the engine was changed for performance reasons, it should go in the cost cap.”

Stella’s comments indicated that a distinction exits between performance and reliability-related engine changes when it comes to compliance with the F1 cost cap.

The system has been in place since 2021, and enforces a maximum budget which teams cannot spend beyond during a season.

McLaren reportedly has since brought the matter to attention at the latest F1 Commission meeting.

Following the race, Red Bull Racing boss Laurent Mekies was asked just how much Verstappen gained from the new engine, with his drive to P3 having kept his albeit now slim title hopes alive.

“It’s difficult to say,” he replied. “It’s always good to fit a new engine.

“It’s fair to say that in the last part of the season, we were on schedule to finish the year without needing the change, but we just felt that we would take the opportunity, mainly because we wanted to change the car again.

“So it’s difficult to give you a number, but you know, everything, the gaps are small enough for everything to be important.”

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Verstappen was denied second only by the impressive defensive driving of Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli, who scored his best result yet in Formula 1 with second.

Mekies is convinced that Verstappen would have been fighting McLaren’s Lando Norris for the victory had it not been for that qualifying disaster for the team.

“Credit to Max for the sensational drive,” he said. “He won last year here from P16 on the wet, and I think we will probably agree that it was as sensational as last year, to bring it to P3 from the pit lane on a dry, relatively uneventful race.

“The simple truth is that we were not happy with where the car was in terms of car balance and drivers feeling, after the Sprint race. We had finished P4, but it was effectively a P5 without those cars stoppage, and nobody wanted to settle for a car that would have been at that level. We felt the optimum window was not where we were.

“We tried our only card at that moment, to change it before the main qualifying.

“We obviously got it wrong, but it’s the way we go racing. We take risk, and if we don’t take that amount of risk, we don’t think we’ll be able to win. So we took that risk. It didn’t work. It’s painful. We got the qualy wrong, and that’s what it is.

“But again, we have taken a lot of this risk in the past few months. I insist it is the way this team goes racing. That’s such a spirit in Oracle Red Bull Racing. We had our highs and low. We had a very difficult Budapest, I’m sure you recall. We had some good highs and then after that, we took the decisions to change again the car, fit a new PU as well, and try to put again the car in a better window.

“The car was alive today. That’s the most important thing. The car was probably good enough to fight for the win today, and that’s what we’re after, after the relatively average result of the Sprint.

“I think in the race, with the different starting positions, I think we would have been in the fight with Lando.”

Norris completed the Sprint and Grand Prix double at Interlagos to go 24 points clear of McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri at the top of the Drivers’ Championship. Verstappen is now 49 points adrift of Norris with three grands prix and one Sprint remaining.

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