As the 2025 Formula 1 season gears up in Melbourne, McLaren are making it clear that their focus on stability and culture could give them the edge, and they’re not shy about taking a swipe at rivals Red Bull along the way.
Early last season, the spotlight in Bahrain was firmly on Red Bull as Christian Horner’s WhatsApp scandal and internal power struggles dominated headlines. Zak Brown was among the first to highlight unrest within Red Bull, joking about CVs from Milton Keynes being passed around the paddock.
Fast forward to 2025, and while Red Bull has held onto Horner, they’ve still lost big names like Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley.
Meanwhile, McLaren has focused on strengthening its team from within, extending contracts for key figures like team principal Andrea Stella, lead aerodynamicist Peter Prodromou, and rising star Oscar Piastri — all crucial to the Woking outfit’s impressive resurgence last year.
McLaren Confidence vs Red Bull Internal Drama
Speaking to reporters ahead of the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, Stella and Brown acknowledged that other teams are circling McLaren’s talent, but made it clear that they believe success comes from creating an environment where people want to stay, a pointed contrast to the narrative surrounding Red Bull’s ongoing challenges.
“You hear over the years that people steal your sponsors, people steal your drivers, people steal your employees. They don’t. You lose them,” McLaren CEO Brown emphasised, in a thinly veiled swipe at Red Bull.
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“Putting aside the contractual element, we’ve worked very hard to create an environment where people want to be at McLaren. Which I think we’ve successfully done. We don’t have a single change on our pit wall this year. We don’t have a single change in our technical leadership.”
While Brown’s words seem like a direct dig at Red Bull’s recent instability, there’s also a simmering dispute between the two teams over Red Bull strategist Will Courtenay, who agreed to join McLaren last year but has been forced into a long “gardening leave” period — reportedly until mid-2026 — because Red Bull refuse to release him early.
When asked if McLaren’s growing rivalry with Red Bull was influencing this stalemate, Stella treaded carefully, but added a revealing remark.
“There are some contracts that need to be complied with and we respect the position of the other party at the moment. That’s what they want to enforce, and we will be patient,” Stella said.
“We are very interested in injecting expertise and understanding even more about how other teams operate, and it looks like that’s been the case with some senior members that came from the same party…”
Clearly, the war of words between McLaren and Red Bull is heating up, and as the season progresses, their off-track tensions could spill onto the grid. With McLaren now a genuine title contender, this rivalry may define the 2025 championship battle — and fans are here for it.
As McLaren pushes for another standout season, Brown and Stella are making sure the team stays united, with a subtle but unmistakable message: while others manage their drama, McLaren is ready to fight.
