McLaren's subtle dig at Red Bull sets stage for…

This time last year all the talk in the paddock at testing and the season opener in Bahrain centred around the disarray at Red Bull and Christian Horner's WhatsApp controversy. The behind-the-scenes power struggle eventually resulted in a truce, and Horner staying in power, but not without rivals teams trying to take advantage of the noise. Zak Brown made a public mention of Red Bull CVs "floating around" at the time, and with Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley two high-profile Red Bull members eventually left for pastures new.

The mood couldn't be more different this year as McLaren launches its own title defence 12 months on. While it has made a bright start to the season in testing, it has also managed to keep the core of its technical staff intact, with the team thrashing out fresh deals for Oscar Piastri, team boss Andrea Stella as well as aero chief Peter Prodromou.

Speaking in the Melbourne paddock ahead of this weekend's Australian Grand Prix, Stella and Brown admitted they had "noticed a certain interest in our people" off the back of the Woking team's success, with Piastri's early contract extension one way to avoid any "distractions" from its rivals. But more than keeping its staff under lock and key, Brown said cultivating a culture that people want to be a part of is a much better way to ensure stability than airtight contracts.

"You hear over the years that people steal your sponsors, people steal your drivers, people steal your employees. They don't. You lose them," Brown said. "Putting aside the contractual element, we've worked very hard to create an environment where people want to be at McLaren. Which I think we've successfully done, we don't have a single change on our pitwall this year. We don't have a single change in our technical leadership."

It's hard not to see that line as a cheeky dig at Red Bull as the two teams continue to battle on and off the track. Brown was one of the first in line to stir the pot as the Horner controversy unfolded last year, which has seen him replace Toto Wolff as Horner's main adversary in the paddock.

Christian Horner, Team Principal of Oracle Red Bull Racing and Zak Brown, Chief Executive Officer of McLaren (Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool)

That rivalry has seemingly also affected their ability to come to an agreement over Red Bull strategist Will Courtenay, who decided to join McLaren as a sporting director last year. McLaren initially announced Courtenay's hire back in September, with the understanding that it would be able come to deal to shorten his gardening leave. But that deal has not materialised, with Red Bull happy to make McLaren wait until the middle of next year as it keeps Courtenay to his contract.

Asked whether Brown's rivalry with Horner is part of the reason why Red Bull has been playing hard ball with Courtenay, Stella initially ducked the question before adding a little spice at the end of his answer.

"There are some contracts that need to be complied with and we respect the position of the other party at the moment. That's what they want to enforce, and we will be patient," said Stella.

"We are very interested in injecting expertise and understand even more about how other teams operate, and we are very focused on creating an environment where not only our people want to remain, but also that can be attractive for the other people to join. And it looks like that's been the case with some senior members that came from the same party..."

It's the type of prodding that is usually employed by Brown, who is much more of a verbal brawler than the eloquent Italian, but it does set the stage for an intriguing 2025 bout.

Formula 1 fans can only hope their fight goes the distance on track, too.