McLaren ‘cannot take advantage’ of the F1 rules grey area Red Bull just exploited for Max Verstappen

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McLaren and Red Bull are duelling to win the 2025 F1 drivers’ championship, as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri strive to dethrone Max Verstappen after four years at the top.

Verstappen can join Michael Schumacher as the only driver ever to win five titles in a row by retaining the crown. But Norris can mathematically eliminate Verstappen from the 2025 title race at this week’s Las Vegas Grand Prix by extending his 49-point lead to at least 58 points.

Norris leads the 2025 F1 drivers’ championship through 21 of the 24 rounds with 390 points, putting him 24 points clear of his McLaren teammate Piastri in second. The 26-year-old has outscored Piastri in each of the past six rounds, to retake the top spot and build a large lead.

McLaren cannot give Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri a new engine for performance like Red Bull did for Max Verstappen

Piastri crashing out of the Brazil Sprint on a weekend that Norris won the Sprint and the Sao Paulo Grand Prix from pole position put the latter in control of the F1 title race. But Red Bull also gifted Verstappen a lifeline at Interlagos by changing his engine after qualifying in Brazil.

READ MORE: All you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

Verstappen only qualified P16 for the Sao Paulo GP after Red Bull made set-up changes that proved ill-advised following the Sprint. So, Red Bull gave Verstappen a new engine in Brazil, with which he rose from the pit lane to the podium in P3 and should avoid any other issues.

McLaren cannot use the same grey area in the F1 regulations to hand Norris or Piastri a new engine for performance like works Honda team Red Bull can. Technical director Neil Houldey admits McLaren can only fit a new engine for reliability as a Mercedes power unit customer.

Houldey said, via quotes by The Race: “We are in a bit of a different position. We can’t take a performance engine change, because we are not a works team who have a PU supplier who is happy to supply those engines free of charge.

“It is definitely something that a works team can use that someone like us, who is purely independent, cannot take advantage of.”

Red Bull accuse McLaren of throwing ‘a grenade’ with their engine change accusations

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies revealed after the Sao Paulo GP that they had opted to fit a new engine in Verstappen’s car purely for performance reasons following his Q1 exit. The 28-year-old was not expected to face any reliability issues over the final rounds of 2025.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Red Bull Racing from engine to Ford links

Mekies stated that Red Bull saw Verstappen’s P16 in qualifying as their chance to take a grid penalty, which ultimately led him to start the Sao Paulo GP from the pit lane, without facing the full consequences of an engine change had the four-time champion qualified at the top.

But Mekies’ claims caught the attention of McLaren counterpart Andrea Stella, who wanted clarification on whether Verstappen’s new engine counted towards Red Bull’s 2025 cost cap calculations or not. Engine changes are currently a grey area in the F1 cost cap regulations.

The Race reports that the FIA is yet to provide a formal answer as there is not a defined rule for engine changes in the cost cap rules. McLaren believe Verstappen’s engine should count towards Red Bull’s cost cap calculations as it was only for performance, instead of reliability.

Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan believes Stella’s search for answers regarding where Verstappen’s new engine in Brazil falls within the Milton Keynes team’s cost cap calculations for 2025 are baseless. Monaghan also accuses McLaren of throwing a “grenade” in the mix.

“I’m not surprised someone has to sort of roll a hand grenade into the situation,” Monaghan said. “Fine. If the situation were around the other way, we could do the same.

“What we did is defendable. It’s legitimate, and if you go back through, even this generation of cars from say ‘22 to this year, people have made engine changes.

“There’s nothing unusual in it… I don’t think it’s a grey area. As far as I’m concerned, we justified to ourselves what we were going to do. If we’re questioned on it, fine, we will justify it.”