Toto Wolff snaps back at Christian Horner's F1 team over legality claims

Toto Wolff has criticised Christian Horner’s Red Bull Formula 1 team after they launched an investigation into the legality of McLaren’s F1 car.

McLaren have enjoyed a dominant start to the season and are already 105 points ahead of Mercedes in the constructors’ championship after the Miami Grand Prix.

However, Red Bull accused the papaya team of putting water in their tyre to cool them, which would provide a pace advantage, although the FIA found no evidence of wrongdoing when previously investigating these allegations in 2024.

Red Bull has started to investigate McLaren using thermal imaging cameras, but Mercedes chief Wolff has made it clear he supports McLaren after the allegations from Red Bull.

"I think that the team around Zak [Brown], Andrea [Stella], Rob Marshall... these are good people with integrity," Wolff told the media after the Miami Grand Prix.

"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.”

"Also, 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: 'They're cheating', because that's not the right attitude anyway.”

"So we just need to become better and eventually not [lose] 30 or 35 seconds over 57 laps.”

McLaren respond to Red Bull cheating claims

McLaren CEO Zak Brown responded to the cheating claims himself in Miami, where he took a sly dig at Horner’s team and was accompanied by a water bottle labelled ‘tire water’ on the pit wall during the weekend.

However, Brown has since hit out at Red Bull’s claims branding them as ‘bogus’, and calling for an end to teams making unfounded allegations.

"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,” Brown told the media in Miami.

"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 happen 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."

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