FIA finds no wrongdoing following Red Bull's complaints about alleged tire cooling trick being used by McLaren and other teams - Report

A report claims that the FIA has not found any evidence to corroborate Red Bull's complaints about McLaren using an alleged cooling trick during the Brazilian GP. The Austrian team had accused its championship rival, along with several other teams, of adding water to get extra moisture into the tire and the wheel rims to help deal with overheating.

The McLaren cars' performances have been exemplary when it comes to tire wear in the 2024 season, with the MCL38 tending to show its true performance in the later stages of a tire's life. It is one of the key reasons that the British team have surpassed expectations and currently sits at the top of the constructor standings with three races to go.

Red Bull claimed that some teams were using the cooling trick, with the Austrian team having employed similar methods before they were outlawed by technical directives a few years ago, thus being aware of its advantages.

However, as reported by Motorsport.com, after close inspection at the end of the Brazilian GP, the sport's governing body could not find any evidence of extra moisture in the tires.

Notably, during the race weekend in Interlagos, Pirelli head Mario Isola had said on the issue (via TheRace.com),

“How to do that is very easy [in practical terms]. You have a valve, you put water inside. How the system works is a different story. It's basically a thermal effect - heat transfer between the tire and the rim that should give more consistency or less degradation to the tires, even if you have worse control of the pressure.

“Because if you have a vapor inside the tires, you lose control of the pressure, you have a pressure that is higher. I heard the story, I tried to understand myself how it works and I collected this information. But if anyone did it or not, it's still a question mark.”

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McLaren driver weighs in on the title fight against Red Bull and Ferrari

McLaren driver Lando Norris said this week that he believes Ferrari to be a bigger threat to the British team than the reigning world champion, Red Bull. As the sport enters its final three races of the season, all three teams are close in the standings.

As per Formula Rapida, the 24-year-old said,

“It’s clear that the momentum McLaren and Ferrari had was way more than Red Bull. So Ferrari have been our biggest competitor since probably nine, ten races ago already. They were the guys we knew at the end of the year would be fighting, not Red Bull.

"From a constructors’ point of view, Red Bull have a much bigger job to do now. They can afford to take much bigger risks and do these [tactics] types of things and hope that they pay off."

McLaren leads Ferrari by 36 points while Red Bull is in P3, 13 points behind the Italian team, heading into the final three races.