McLaren dismayed by 'escalation' following Red Bull complaint

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has dismissed as "very simple" a Red Bull complaint to the FIA that he believes "escalated" out of control.

Over the Austrian and British Grands Prix weekends, Red Bull was concerned McLaren was utilising an extra hole in the front and rear brake drums to aid cooling.

During Friday practice, teams are allowed to use sensors inside a brake drum to collect information about the temperature of the rims and tyres. The sensors are accessed via a hole in the drum.

Beyond Friday practice, however, the holes have to be closed off. Red Bull's suspicion was McLaren did not do so at Spielberg and Silverstone, giving it a cooling advantage during the grands prix.

Stella, though, has clarified the situation. Speaking to Sky Sports F1, he said: "Actually, this method is very simple. This is a hole to access a sensor and we got a clarification from the FIA that this hole is not allowed, and we just taped it.

"It is a very, very simple matter which for some reason seemed to have escalated to become a topic in the paddock but nothing of that kind."

McLaren disruption woes continue

Whilst Lando Norris at least set the quickest pace on Friday ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, off track it has been another disrupted weekend for the team.

In Spain, a kitchen fire forced its paddock motorhome out of action. In Hungary, a torrential storm that lasted an hour-and-a-half has again rendered the facility inhospitable as the roof was unable to be secured in time.

Asked as to how disruptive the situation was for McLaren, Stella said: "It's disruptive for all the people that built the motorhome, maintains the motorhome. That's definitely making their weekend here in Budapest busy.

"I just want to thank all these people that do this hard work which sometimes goes unnoticed. Instead, there are a lot of workers who do a lot of hard work for us to enjoy our race weekend.

"In terms of disruption, that's mainly the fact that we needed to relocate our guests, but hopefully with still a positive experience.

"And for the team, in terms of consuming our meals, we have to use our offices and the garage, but nothing that we are not ready for. It's all good, it's just a shame that we have to keep working on the hospitality."