Andrea Stella criticizes Red Bull following their Power Unit replacement during last weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix
Once again, it’s Woking and Milton Keynes. Andrea Stella’s direct attack marks yet another chapter in the ongoing and seemingly endless exchange of accusations between McLaren and Red Bull — especially in this 2025 season, where both teams are fighting for the World Championship title.
This time, the issue — as often happens — concerns the Power Unit change made by Red Bull under parc fermé conditions after Saturday’s qualifying session on Max Verstappen’s car.
Stella’s attack on Red Bull: “Engine change must count towards the cost cap”
Speaking after the Brazilian GP, Andrea Stella openly questioned Red Bull’s move: “To be honest, these Power Unit changes are testing the limits of the regulations. It will be interesting to see whether the cost of this engine is included in the budget cap or not”.
“If the engine was changed for performance reasons, it should be part of the cost cap. That’s also one of the reasons why we didn’t do it — because it would fall under the cost cap“.The statement serves as both a defense of McLaren’s approach and a direct attack on Red Bull — hardly a coincidence at such a crucial point in the season.
“I don’t know how it works for Honda, but in general, these engines don’t show much degradation with mileage”.
And finally, a last remark on Honda: “Normally, you don’t change an engine while accepting a penalty or grid loss, because the performance gain doesn’t really compensate for the positions lost. But, as I said, I’m not sure how power degradation works for Honda “.
Photo: McLaren, Oracle Red Bull Racing
