Red Bull-McLaren tape shenanigans: Storm in a teacup or a sign of heightening tension?
The Race F1 Podcast
The Race Media Ltd
4.5 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 October 2025
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After Red Bull were fined for a pre-race rules breach in Austin, which involved a team member attempting to interfere with a strip of tape McLaren had placed on the pitwall as a grid slot reference for Lando Norris, we ask if the incident marks the revival of the fractious relationship between the two teams.
With both teams inevitably having to take a public position on it at this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix, we discuss the best approaches and explain why teams have always engaged in such shenanigans to a greater or lesser extent.
The question of whether there really is a ‘spirit’ of the regulations or the sport is also tackled, as well as examining why the lines that are artificially drawn between the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ guys by some are reductive.
We also tackle a batch of listener questions on Oscar Piastri’s struggles, Pirelli tyres, Carlos Sainz’s risk assessment and more.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic |
| 0:02.7 | The Race is on, and so is the title fight with the Red Bull versus McLaren needle sharpening again after a lull in hostilities, but has the mark been overstepped? |
| 0:21.6 | And what does it mean for the rest of the championship battle? |
| 0:24.5 | I'm Ed's draw, and with me to scrutinise a fierce team rivalry, a Scott Mitchell Mound, and |
| 0:29.2 | John Noble. |
| 0:30.6 | Welcome to the Race F1 podcast presented by eBay. |
| 0:34.2 | John, everyone will have heard about Red Bull's interference with McLaren's market tape on the Austin Pitbull by now. |
| 0:39.2 | But is this just the first salvo in a new war between the two teams? |
| 0:43.5 | I don't know if it's the first salvo in a war, but I think it adds a kind of intriguing kind of extra bit of spice to the battle now. |
| 0:51.7 | Because we've had numerous races where red bull and max |
| 0:55.3 | vastap and said oh we're taking this one race at a time you know that's all we can do and the |
| 1:00.0 | championship will take care of itself then suddenly the very facts that you know red bull uh i wouldn't |
| 1:06.3 | say deliberately doing anything nefarious or massively out of order, but the fact, whatever this was, |
| 1:12.7 | whether it was a bit of a game, whether it's a bit of pettiness, whether it's a bit of what we can |
| 1:17.9 | call shithousery from them against McLaren. But I think it shows there is a rivalry there. |
| 1:23.3 | It shows that now things are getting serious and every single element is going to count. And I think it's setting us up for an amazing end to the season. Scott, there's some who've kind of made this out to be a storm and a teacup. After all, it's just some tape on a wall, isn't it? Do you have any sympathy with that? Or do you think that this is justifiably something that's really sparked the imagination for quite a few fans. |
| 1:44.7 | I think it's both. I think it doesn't have to be the world's biggest controversy for it to be |
| 1:50.7 | something of value and meaning. The main point is that Red Bull team members wouldn't be doing this if they didn't think |
| 2:02.8 | there was a reason to do it. And sometimes that reason can just be to be a nuisance. It's the kind of |
| 2:10.7 | low stakes shenanigans that break out when there is, you know, maybe different kinds of sporting cultures at work |
| 2:19.8 | and it's not my place to say sort of which one's right and which one's wrong, but there's, |
| 2:26.2 | there's, everybody has a different definition of fairness, you know, some people will just say |
... |
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