McLaren boss Andrea Stella responded to claims by Max Verstappen that Red Bull’s rivals breached Formula 1 rules in 2024.
The 2024 F1 campaign was littered with technical controversies, from flex wings, skid blocks, mini-DRS and water-injected tyres.
McLaren, sporting arguably the most complete package across the season often found itself at the centre of these controversies with Red Bull leading allegations towards its flexing front and rear wings, plus claiming the woking-based outfit was using a water-injection trick to cool its tyres.
Verstappen even went as far as to imply teams got away with breaking the rules, telling De Telegraaf: “There were things that happened in the background, which meant that we had no chance at all in certain races.
“I know that for sure, but no one will ever admit that,” he added.
The FIA found no cause to outlaw flexible front wings, nor did it find any evidence of foul play surrounding water injection to cool tyres.
However, the flexible rear wing element that created the mini-DRS effect on the MCL38 was one that the governing body forced McLaren to change.
Andrea Stella rubbishes McLaren cheating allegations
Stella has categorically denied any wrongdoing by McLaren in 2024.
Instead, the Italian has said such allegations were distractions the team had to get used to as a newfound challenger for consistent race victories and the Drivers’/Constructors’ Championships.
“What is difficult, even if you get familiar with racing at the top, is to handle the noise and the distractions that come either internally or externally,” Stella told motorsport.com.
“You want to keep staying focused. And, in order to do so, you do have to have a structured approach, a conscious approach towards managing the noise, managing now that you are the headline.”
Stella went on to reference the water injection tyre controversy, one which he said didn’t “make any sense.”
The Italian added: “And sometimes, like we have seen with the case of the water in the tyres, sometimes having to deal with misinformation, things that you know kind of don’t make any sense.
“And yet they become news and they become something that you cannot ignore, so you have to deal with [it],” he explained.
“So these are new dimensions in a way for a team that was not competing [for wins before] and they definitely proved to be requiring a lot of attention.”
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