McLaren’s dominant start to 2025 faces scrutiny, as new FIA directives raise questions about car legality and tyre management advantage.
New FIA Technical Directives (TDs) could well alter the course of the remaining three quarters of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship.
So far, the season has largely unfolded in line with expectations and many pre-season predictions, with McLaren, the reigning Constructors’ World Champion, dominating the field.
Heading into last Sunday’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, the Woking-based team had won five of the six Grands Prix held, enjoying a solid lead in its bid to retain the Constructors’ title.
Two key areas of car development, seemingly a secret code only McLaren had managed to crack, were the clever interpretation of the regulations regarding flexible wings and tire management.
The latter had drawn the attention of several rivals, particularly Red Bull, its main competitor.
However, the Imola weekend saw the tables turn: Max Verstappen claimed a dominant win for the team. His team principal, Christian Horner, described it as “the first time in a while that we’ve had the pace to really get the upper hand and pull ahead of McLaren.”
It has since emerged that the FIA issued directives ahead of the Imola weekend—two decisions that certainly piqued the interest of participating teams.
The first TD concerns the measurement of skid block materials and how some teams had found clever solutions to pass post-race plank thickness tests.
The directive clarified the types of materials allowed in the skid area, as well as how they must be mounted, to prevent teams from finding workarounds that let them run closer to the limit while still passing the minimum thickness test.
Any team that had previously exploited this area to lower its car had to raise it for the Imola race. Was McLaren affected? Red Bull seems to think so.
The second TD, issued during a communication exchange between the FIA and Red Bull, clarified the ban on methods of reducing tire temperatures using external cooling methods other than air. This change had already raised questions about how McLaren had managed such effective tire management.
This development could inevitably lead to speculation that the TD slowed McLaren and hindered its progress in managing tire temperatures during the race. It is impossible to say for now, and obviously, confirmation will depend on the next several Grands Prix.
TD018, the next technical directive to be issued—and the most anticipated—will come into force at next weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. It will bring a change regarding the flexible front wings, which has already triggered intense speculation about which teams could benefit and which could suffer.
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