McLaren fires criticism at Red Bull for repeated 'crying wolf' claims

McLaren boss Andrea Stella believes rivals Red Bull are "extremely good in creating the narrative to their advantage" in the F1 title fight.

Red Bull are the only team to defeat McLaren in a grand prix in 2025, with Max Verstappen winning the Japanese GP, although this came after a poor Friday for the team with senior figures such as Helmut Marko and Christian Horner playing down Red Bull's pace.

This has been something the team has done for a while, with Verstappen's victory after a terrible Friday at the 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix a prime example. 

The two teams are engaged in a war of words, with McLaren telling Red Bull to effectively 'put up or shut up' over allegations that Red Bull believes McLaren to be using water to cool its tyres, with Horner also telling McLaren that the pressure is upped when fighting at the head of the field.

When presented with Red Bull's claims of portraying itself of an underdog, Stella called the team out. 

"Red Bull are very good at making fast cars, they are exceptionally good at driving fast cars, and they are extremely good in creating the narrative to their advantage," Stella told media, including RacingNews365.

"They exploit every possible opportunity to stay in the competition, like sometimes, they create the narrative like: 'Oh, we are making miracles here, the others should win every single practice, qualifying and race.'

"But this is the narrative created by some of our competitors, which we read occasionally, but then we change the page and focus on ourselves.

"When we focus on ourselves, we look at the numbers, we look at the facts, we look at what we should be improving, and there is a lot which we should be improving. 

"For me, when I look at the facts, I look at what Lando and Oscar have delivered, and delivered quite consistently.

"So yeah, well done to Red Bull, even in terms of the way they manage their non-technical opportunities."