Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has backed McLaren amid concerns from rival Formula 1 teams that the MCL39 could be illegally approaching tyre management.
The McLaren MCL39 is the class-leader in tyre management through a race, especially in hot conditions.
The team’s race pace was also potent during the second half of the 2024 campaign, so much so that Red Bull accused the team of water injection to cool its tyres during the Singapore Grand Prix.
Pirelli and the FIA found no wrongdoing, but the saga itself has continued with Auto Motor und Sport reporting Red Bull monitored McLaren’s tyres with thermal imaging cameras.
Zak Brown responded in Miami with a water bottle on the pit-wall labelled ‘tyre cooling water’ and implied to The Telegraph that Red Bull should launch a formal protest if it’s truly concerned regarding the MCL39’s legality.
Wolff, however, holds no such concerns and believes it’s up to McLaren’s rivals to do a better job rather than pointing the finger.
“I think that the team around Zak [Brown], Andrea [Stella], Rob Marshall… these are good people with integrity,” he told the media, including Motorsport Week.
“If in the past, [we] often say: ‘Well, let’s look at whether there’s something borderline’, but I have no doubt that these guys [McLaren] stay within the rules.
“It’s just really good development [with] that car. They’ve understood how to manage the tyre much better than everybody else and, in my opinion, it’s totally legit.
“From a team management point of view, we should never when somebody is doing a better job than you, we should not look at that and say ‘cheating’, because that’s not the right attitude anyway.
“So we just need to become better, and eventually not get 30 or 35 seconds over 55 laps.”
Wolff calls for Mercedes to improve tyre management
Merecdes, like Red Bull, has kept McLaren on its toes during qualifying but the Miami GP was evidence that work needs to be done over a race distance.
George Russell, third behind the two McLaren drivers in Miami, finished half a minute behind Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
There’s no greater evidence there that Mercedes has work to do.
“We’re just not good on with the tyres on an extended run,” Wolff said.
“McLaren is showing how it can be done, and to a degree, I think that Red Bull, with Max, they’re managing it better.
“I would say we’re solid in what we’re doing, but they are definitely doing an excellent job by being able to go fast around the corners without overheating them.
“So this is what we need to look up to and engineer our way out.”
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