Red Bull responds to McLaren's query of using a power unit outside of the cost cap

Red Bull Racing made a power unit change to Max Verstappen's car at the 2025 Brazilian GP following the subpar qualifying. McLaren came out and raised questions regarding the same with respect to the cost cap, and the Milton Keynes-based team has come out with a response.

Max Verstappen wasn't able to get a satisfactory setup for the qualifying at the Brazilian GP since it was a sprint weekend and failed to make it out of Q1. After the qualifying, the team decided to break the parc ferme and made changes to the setup, as well as put a new power unit in the car, as the Dutchman started from the pitlane.

Despite the pitlane start and an early puncture, Verstappen was able to finish on the podium. After the race at Interlagos, McLaren came out and questioned whether the cost of the new power unit put in the Dutchman's car would be considered in the cost cap.

The engine change cost lies in a grey area, as it is not specifically mentioned what changes do and don't count in the cost cap. Following McLaren's query, Red Bull came out and claimed it was a straightforward situation with no need for a fuss around it.

F1 Grand Prix of Brazil - Source: Getty

Red Bull’s Chief engineer, Paul Monaghan, came out following the McLaren query as he said,

“I'm not surprised someone has to sort of roll a hand grenade into the situation. Fine. If the situation were around the other way, we could do the same. What we did is defendable, it's legitimate and if you go back through, even this generation of cars from say '22 to this year, people have made engine changes. There's nothing unusual in it.” (via The Race) “I don't think it's a grey area. As far as I'm concerned, we justified to ourselves what we were going to do. If we're questioned on it, fine, we will justify it,” added Monaghan

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Red Bull Chief engineer avoids direct answer to power unit cost cap question

Red Bull broke the cost cap in 2021 and was given a $7 million fine and a 10% reduction in aerodynamics testing time. Following McLaren's power unit cost cap query after the 2025 Brazilian GP, Paul Monaghan was questioned whether the change fell under the cost cap or not. The Red Bull chief engineer avoided a direct answer as he said,

“I'm not going to answer that question because I'm not a finance regulation expert. I know roughly what we need to do and what's in and what's out. But I believe our actions we can defend, and there will not be a penalty against us at the end of the year for it.” (via The Race)

McLaren came out following the query and detailed how it would have to pay Mercedes for every new power unit since it is a customer team, unlike Red Bull, which is a works team and exclusively gets engines from Honda (and for sister team VCARB).

Edited by Pranay Bhagi