Max Verstappen thinks McLaren’s advantage in Formula 1 goes far beyond tyre usage – with one other area of performance being labelled by him as “incredible.”
Much was made earlier in the season of the edge McLaren has with its tyre temperature management, with rivals - and Verstappen's Red Bull team in particular - having pushed hard for the FIA to investigate precisely how McLaren is able to prevent its rear tyres from overheating.
This prompted some wild theories around the time of May's Miami Grand Prix of McLaren using water-cooling tricks - although these allegations were subsequently debunked by the FIA.
Verstappen, who has been McLaren’s most consistent challenger in 2025, suggests there is something else about McLaren's performance that stands out.
Asked ahead of the Hungarian GP about what areas he felt the McLaren was better than the Red Bull, the four-time world champion said: “It's definitely better on its tyres. It can keep the tyres alive a lot nicer. You can clearly see that in the wet, on intermediates.
“If you have good tyre management it even comes out more on that tyre because the tyre is more fragile. It overheats even faster, and they definitely have that very well under control.
“At the same time, I think their medium-speed performance is incredible compared to, I would say, everyone else on the grid.
“The rotation they have on the front axle without losing the rear is something that is also quite incredible to see. And that's something that we have to try and achieve.”
Verstappen’s verdict on the McLaren fits in with what the team itself says about its own form – with it excelling in medium speed corners.
This advantage was why McLaren was dominant over a single lap at Spa - where Lando Norris was 0.338s clear of the fastest non-McLaren - but has lost out to Red Bull at venues where there are more high-speed corners, like Suzuka and Silverstone.
As McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said in Belgium: “Spa is much more dominated by a medium speed range, which is centred around 200km/h. This is also the speed at which McLaren performs very well.”
What's left for Red Bull to chase in 2025
While Verstappen concedes that his title hopes for this year are pretty much over, he says it's important Red Bull pushes to unlock better understanding of the RB21’s weaknesses.
“For us this year, I think realistically it's going to be very difficult to fight McLaren,” Verstappen said. “I think it's already difficult enough to fight with Ferrari and Mercedes.
"But there's still a lot of opportunity to learn more about the car and the behaviour of the car.
"Of course the car has to be built for next year, and that is fully on the way, but on the engineering side of things there is still a lot that we can learn this year.
"So you cannot just say 'OK, we are not winning the championship this year, so we just bin it off completely'.
“There are always things you can take from this year to next year.”
