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F1 Rumor: McLaren team may have been using illegal tire trick

The secret to the McLaren’s team incredible long-run race pace may have been uncovered by Red Bull and, if true, would mean the Woking squad could have been cheating – possibly since the Miami GP.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

McLaren is accused of an illegal trick with the tires to keep them cool during long runs, reports Auto, Motor und Sport.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, in the pit lane during the United States GP at Circuit of the Americas on Friday October 18, 2024 in Austin, United States of America. (Photo by Simon Galloway / LAT Images)

At issue is the fact that the tires are sprayed on the inside with water or some other liquid. This would improve cooling of the tires from the inside over long distances.

The water could be sprayed into the tires through the valves. Even small amounts of water could achieve the desired effect, the publication writes. Several teams, including McLaren, would be able to take advantage of this trick during long runs.

According to the German medium, the FIA is investigating the allegations, with no suspicious observations made in either Austin or Mexico.

It is understood that concern about the activity erupted after the Singapore Grand Prix when Autosport sources suggest some rims of teams were spotted with liquid inside them – something that is unusual.

Article 10.8.4 states that: “Tires may only be inflated with air or nitrogen” and “any process the intent of which is to reduce the amount of moisture in the tire and/or in its inflation gas is forbidden.”

Max Verstappen said ahead of the Brazilian GP that the long runs of rival teams are hard to fathom.

“Some teams made huge steps on race pace, which is quite odd,” he explained. “Because if you look at our car compared to last year, we made steps in qualifying and in the race.

“The others also make a decent step in qualifying pace, but then they make a much, much bigger step in race pace. And that’s something that’s hard for us to understand.”

Team principal Christian Horner told Autosport recently about the swing of form in Miami by McLaren: “If one was a skeptic and somewhat paranoid, you say something’s changed. Because even when we’ve gone back to the configuration of the car that, for example, we had in China, we still have some of the same issues that we have experienced.

“But, in saying that, it changed for everybody, potentially. But I’ve never in a season seen a swing so exaggerated. Obviously, we have to get on top of that. We have to understand it.”

The secret may be that some teams started using the water in the tire trick. Now that the FIA are inspecting the tires after they come off the rims may explain why McLaren’s race pace in the Sao Paulo Sprint race Saturday morning was not so dominating as in the past, with Max Verstappen all over the McLaren’s and Verstappen even set the fastest lap.