Formula 1 World Championship 2025, Round 7, Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, Italy, Sunday 18 May 2025 - Zak Brown (USA) McLaren Executive Director.

Cheating allegations against McLaren reach breaking point: 'It's gone too far'

10:59, 29 May

Updated: 11:22, 29 May

byNorberto Mujica

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has drawn a line in the sand in the respects of the cheating allegations against the Woking-based team, who sees the attacks coming from 'one team' more than another.

Since the end of last year, allegations regarding McLaren's optimal tyre wear have surfaced with one name pinned as the common denominator behind each supposed accusation: Red Bull Racing.

In an exclusive interview with PlanetF1, Brown believes the cases being made against McLaren have reached a tipping point. "That’s where the sport is today, but I believe it’s gone too far.”

Brown reaches out to the FIA to put a stop to 'bogus allegations'

The American has since reached out to the FIA to try and put a stop to 'one team more than another' and their disruptive tactics which have cheating accusations as their driving force, something he believes to be wasting the governing body's time and resources.

He then proposes what he thinks the due process should be when submitting a complaint regarding a rival team potentially being outside the confines of the regulations.

“There’s a process; you put money down – it needs to be a chunky number in the sense, and it needs to be against your cost cap. Then, if you find that you found something, then you get your money back, no problem. If they didn’t find it or they find that you were frivolous in your allegations, you’ll lose your money and it goes against the cost cap."

Brown is of the idea that this will serve as a deterrent to teams who instead of seeing their money wasted in a dead-end investigation process, will then choose to invest it in further developing their car.

After calling out what he believes are people being 'dishonest' with the FIA, leading to the motorsport federation wasting time and resources, looking into bogus claims, he concludes that teams in the future should 'put their money where their mouths are.'

Formula 1 World Championship 2025, Round 8, Monaco Grand Prix, Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo, Monaco, Sunday 25 May 2025 - Lando Norris (GBR) McLaren MCL39.

Lando Norris drove to victory in McLaren's MCL39 at the Monaco Grand Prix

'Politickery is a part of the sport, but a 'couple people' have taken it too far'

Politickery has ever been a part of the sport, with teams always trying to keep each other honest, but also to try and destabilise their rivals, something Brown sees as it 'being a part of the game.

“I don’t think we want to get rid of that. I think what we want to do is pull back where it’s gotten out of control."

“I don’t think you ever want to take emotion, passion, rivalries out of sport, but what you do have to do is look and figure out what’s over the line and what’s acceptable.”

McLaren has recently been at the forefront of the rumours behind the flexiwing saga, which has led up to the revised TD018 being enforced from the Spanish Grand Prix onward, as well as the target of the elimination of the so-called 'mini-DRS effect', where the rear wings main plates would deflect upon load minimising drag whilst increasing the achievable top speed.

Brown accepts the politickery a part of the sport, and whilst he doesn't see it taking a hold of the sport at the root of it, he does highlight that the issue has gotten out of hand mainly due to a 'couple people.'

“There’s always been politics games in sport and I think that’s okay, I think it’s just gotten out of control in a couple areas with a couple people.”

“I don’t think this is an endemic issue with the sport, but I think there’s a few people that take it beyond what I believe is an acceptable amount of politicking, so to speak.”