Following Max Verstappen’s victory in Imola, and perhaps more significantly, McLaren’s defeat, suggestions have surfaced that a new Technical Directive (TD) from the FIA might be of importance.
Red Bull suspects McLaren trickery
During the Miami GP weekend, which saw Oscar Piastri take a dominant win, Red Bull hinted at McLaren doing ‘something’ to reduce tyre temperature. Or in Verstappen’s words: “If you look at what McLaren is doing with the rear tyres, then we’re all doing something wrong.” The Milton Keynes based outfit even went as far as to take thermal images during the Japanese GP.
During the Emilia-Romagna GP McLaren suddenly was less dominant than expected, according to Christian Horner.
“We were sort of more surprised about McLaren’s lack of performance,” he said.
Technical Directive clarifies which tyre cooling is allowed
Reason for McLaren’s sudden lack of performance might be the Technical Directive issued by the FIA ahead of Imola. According to Motorsport.com the TD clarified two topics.
The first clarification was regarding the material and mounting of the skid blocks. These are key in the current ground-effect cars, as they are used to determine whether cars are set-up legally.
The second clarification states which techniques and devices are allowed to cool the tyres. The FIA clarified this in response to questions from other teams.
Andrea Stella was pleased with the other teams chasing ghosts.
“For us, it’s good news when our rivals get their focus – rather than on themselves – onto some of the aspects that allegedly are present in our car, and that effectively are not even present.
“And certainly, even if they were – let’s say, flexi-wings like a front wing deflection, like everyone else – it has nothing to do with the reason why McLaren is very competitive.
“So, I hope that in the future there will be more of these kinds of sagas because it means that our rivals keep focusing on the wrong things, and this is, for us, just good news. It’s just helping our quest.”
Piastri’s race-winning car all clear
Before the Imola GP the FIA announced that, next to the Technical Directive, they inspected Oscar Piastri’s McLaren in Miami. They took a detailed look at all four wheel assemblies of the MCL39, but found all were compliant.
The FIA inspected the wheel assemblies on two specific rules. First one was Article 3.13, which deals with the geometry of wheel assembly. The second one was Article 11.5, which forbids the use of liquids to help cool the brakes. Neither of these regulations were breached by McLaren.
