The scrutiny that McLaren found itself under for its car advantage earlier in the 2025 Formula 1 season ended up being reassuring for the team once it realised how much time Red Bull was devoting to its most wild theories.
An increasingly bitter rivalry between Red Bull and McLaren reached a crescendo early in 2025 that McLaren boss Andrea Stella believes actually worked against Red Bull.
Under the previous leadership of Christian Horner, who was removed from his role in July, Red Bull started to put pressure on the FIA last year to intervene over excessive front and rear wing flexing, and suggested McLaren may be trying to cool its tyres by adding water inside the wheel.
When Red Bull failed to produce the step it expected for 2025 and McLaren raised the bar even higher, more in-season flexi-wing rule tweaks to both the front and rear wings changed nothing, with some inside McLaren actually of the opinion that reinforced its advantage.
Red Bull then went even further as it pursued trying to work out how McLaren looks after its rear tyres better than anyone else; obtaining thermal images of McLaren's rear wheels from pitstops, and sharing a large dossier of theories with the FIA that included multiple ideas for very specific and almost entirely illegal tyre cooling trickery.
Stella told The Race this had the potential to become a big "distraction" as McLaren has not found itself under such an intense focus in its modern era.
But, he added: "We also felt like, if our opposition are so busy looking at that, they are actually the ones getting distracted.
"It's almost a good thing, because it means that there will be senior people spending time to talk to the FIA, preparing dossiers. It's good that they pay attention on that rather than on the fundamentals of Formula 1.
"That was quite reassuring, that actually there was a burden that was being paid by some of the teams that wanted to think that a team can be successful by exploiting regulations beyond what is allowed.
"We have proven that you can be successful just focusing on yourself and focusing on the fundamentals from a technical and performance point of view."
McLaren found the speculation about its supposed flexi-wing advantage last year and this year inaccurate but also within the realms of normal team politicking, as it was something Ferrari was also heavily involved with too.
But it felt Red Bull went too far with certain theories and methods, effectively an extreme version of a tactic occasionally adopted by teams to smoke out what others might be doing.
The accusations led to repeated looks at McLaren's wheel assemblies and brake system by the FIA, which included a detailed inspection post-race in Miami in May - all of which McLaren passed.
Stella said this led to a conscious effort to remain "rational and factual" and to be "extremely collaborative with the FIA when they were doing their job and checking our car".
"But the reality is that what we were hearing as allegations, immediately we realised, that's quite frivolous," Stella said.
"In fairness, we always remained pretty, like, 'Let's not get absolutely distracted by this'. OK, it's going to cost us one hour, because for one hour, some people will have to show the FIA some parts. But that's not a distraction. This doesn't defocus us from doing what we are doing.
"It's always a little bit of shame that currently, teams can make frivolous or inconsistent allegations, which generate work: work for the FIA, work for the team that is being checked.
"And this goes to the advantage of the team that made the allegations, because now I have some work to do, just because there's some interest in my car, in just supporting the checks.
"I don't have to modify anything, because there's nothing to modify, but it is a distraction or a potential distraction."
McLaren still has an ongoing desire for there to be a greater financial commitment and burden of proof for a team to bring forward accusations in private.
But it is interesting that McLaren believes Red Bull paid a price by devoting time, effort and brainpower of very senior engineering figures by getting them to prepare dossiers and engage with the FIA.
Suggesting they were not paying attention to the "fundamentals of F1" is about as withering as Stella gets, and it may be that that kind of burden is something Horner's engineering-led successor as Red Bull team principal, Laurent Mekies, will be keen to avoid.
With Red Bull facing a big task to get back on even terms with McLaren and make its on-track rivalry less one-sided, its time will be much better spent looking at improving what is directly in its own control.
There was certainly a quieter approach from Red Bull in its first two race weekends post-Horner. It is too early to know for sure if its dynamic will be permanently different in the long-term with a new leader, but McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has made it clear he is on better terms with Mekies, and he expects a different, healthier rivalry with Red Bull as a result.
Mekies has also hinted at this as well - saying he will still defend Red Bull's interest, but with an emphasis on collaboration with the rivals it was so at odds with only a few months ago.
"Competition on track is one thing," said Mekies. "Having discussions together, to find positions on the future of the sport, on key strategic decisions that we need to make as a sport, is something that is normal to do between competitors.
"And as much as we will disagree here and there, we will simply defend our short-term or mid-term interests.
"The sport, at the level where it is right now, deserves a group [of teams] that tries to tune down their short-term and mid-term interest to discuss with FIA and with F1 on how to drive it forward.
"And that's we try to do. We don't hide our bias, but we try to be constructive about how to build on it."
