The FIA directive may have hindered McLaren's performance at Imola.

      "They have modified the rear brake drums, as you can see."

      A multitude of factors may have contributed to Red Bull's Max Verstappen disrupting the impressive dominance of McLaren at the Imola circuit. Initially, Red Bull arrived at the Italian track with significant advancements on their 2025 car, which had been suffering from understeer, a limited performance and setup range, and much poorer tyre degradation compared to McLaren.

      Former F1 driver Christijan Albers believes that Red Bull's most significant improvement might be mimicking a secret technical feature of McLaren's brake drums. "We are attempting to replicate what McLaren has," Verstappen was quoted by De Limburger as saying at the start of the Imola race weekend.

      Albers commented to De Telegraaf, "How did Red Bull achieve such an improvement in those long runs, enabling them to maintain consistent tyre performance? You can see that they have altered the rear brake drums to allow for better airflow. Perhaps that was the key."

      De Telegraaf's lead F1 correspondent Erik van Haren suggests he has identified another crucial factor that may have benefited Red Bull and hindered McLaren — a technical directive from the FIA that was issued on the Monday of the Imola GP race week. He notes that the directive specifically addressed wheel architecture related to tyre performance, which could be seen as a direct intervention targeting McLaren.

      However, Van Haren points out that McLaren refuted any need to make suspicious changes to their car. Team principal Andrea Stella stated, "For us, it's encouraging when our competitors focus on aspects that are supposedly present in our car — which in fact are not even there."

      Regardless of the full explanation or the truth of the situation, Red Bull's technical director Pierre Wache remains cautious. "Am I confident now? I don’t have an answer to that," the Frenchman remarked. "I felt that way after Suzuka, yet we were defeated by McLaren three times consecutively."