Zak Brown reignites Christian Horner spat as McLaren boss calls for F1 rule change

has suggested that F1 teams should have a 'meaningful' financial sacrifice deducted from their cost cap for unsuccessful complaints and allegations against other teams. The Racing CEO reignited his feud with and after comments about his squad's tyre management. Since their rise to the head of the field in 2024, McLaren have benefited from better tyre management than their rivals. Both the MCL38 and its successor, the MCL39, have been able to keep tyres cool deeper into stints than Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari.

This has underpinned Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri's recent success, and after battling Max Verstappen throughout the second half of 2024, they are now the leading contenders to bring home both World Championships in 2025. Red Bull, unimpressed by their new rivals, have made noise about potential illegality of McLaren's tyre management.

One suggestion was that McLaren have been injecting an unspecified liquid into their tyres to keep them cool. Brown poked fun at this during free practice in Miami, sipping from a water bottle labelled "tire water".

Delving deeper into his stunt, the McLaren Racing CEO said: "[It] was poking fun at a serious issue, which is teams have historically made allegations of other teams. Most recently, one team focuses on that strategy more than others.

"There's a proper way to protest a team at the end of the race, and you have to make it formal, disclose where it comes from, put some money down. I think that process should be extended to all allegations to stop the frivolous allegations, which are intended only to be a distraction.

"So if you had to put up some money and put on paper and not backchannel what your allegations are, I think that would be a way to clean up the bogus allegations that happened in this sport, which are not very sporting.

"And if someone does believe there's a technical issue, by all means, you're entitled to it. Put it on paper, put your money down. It should come against your cost cap if it turns out you're wrong, and I think that will significantly stop the bogus allegations that come from some teams in the sport."

McLaren will have a chance to get one over on Red Bull in the Miami Grand Prix, although Norris will need to move past pole-sitter Verstappen if he is to secure a second successive win in the Magic City. The reigning world champion turned in a brutal performance in qualifying to score his third P1 grid slot of the season.