The McLaren Formula 1 team has been faultless in 2025, and it has plenty of rivals wondering if their advantage over the competition has been gained unfairly.

Red Bull Racing have petitioned the FIA to investigate the MCL39 for any potential breaches of conduct — but if you ask Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, well… he doesn’t think those accusations are founded in reality.

Toto Wolff doesn’t believe McLaren cheating allegations

When McLaren became a force to be reckoned with at the front of the Formula 1 grid in 2024, the sudden turnaround of performance was shocking — and naturally resulted in a slew of accusations that the team found those gains illegally.

First came accusations that the team’s wings were too flexible; the FIA determined that McLaren’s wings were deforming an allowable amount but did choose to refine its regulations and measurement techniques for a much better read on the situation.

Most recently have come allegations from Red Bull Racing that McLaren are using water to cool their tyres.

According Auto Motor und Sport, RBR had used thermal cameras to capture images of the tyre cooling ducts, only to find that the ducts were keeping the tyres impossibly cool.

The reasoning for that was said to be the team adding water to the tyres — though many pundits and engineers have noted that F1 teams go to great lengths to avoid getting any sort of moisture inside their tyres.

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Speaking to Motorsport-Total, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff acknowledged that he has yet to understand why the customer power unit team is so quick — but he doesn’t believe their gains are ill gotten.

“They have understood better than anyone else how to deal with the tyres,” he explained.

“And in my opinion, that is completely legitimate.”

He also praised he McLaren team as “good people with integrity,” and that he has no doubt they’re following the rules.

In fact, Toto Wolff agrees with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown on one key issue: Other teams should be more careful in accusing the competition of finding an illegal advantage.

“If someone does a better job than you, you shouldn’t immediately say that they’re cheating — that’s the wrong attitude anyway,” Wolff explained.

“We simply have to get better and not end up 30 or 35 seconds behind after 55 laps.

“We have to understand what we need to focus on, what the key performance factors are. And we are on it — completely on it.

“We’re not looking at it like a rabbit in the headlights. We’re in the thick of it, we’re trying to figure it out, we’re experimenting, and we’ll definitely be able to keep up.”

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