The official Instagram account of Red Bull’s sim racing team has poked fun at McLaren’s double disqualification at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, offering some “friendly advice” to its rival.
Red Bull driver and reigning four-time world champion Max Verstappen collected his sixth victory of the F1 2025 season in Las Vegas.
Red Bull sim account pokes fun at double McLaren DSQ at Las Vegas Grand Prix
McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished second and fifth respectively in the provisional classification.
However, both drivers were disqualified from the official results following a post-race FIA investigation over excessive skid-block wear, a common hazard during F1’s ground-effect era.
The development could have significant repercussions in the title race with Piastri and Verstappen now level on 366 points, trailing Norris by 24 ahead of the final two races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
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Red Bull and McLaren have developed a bitter rivalry over recent years, with McLaren chief executive Zak Brown and former Red Bull boss Christian Horner famously not seeing eye to eye.
A new flashpoint came with the so-called ‘tapegate’ saga at last month’s United States Grand Prix, where Red Bull was fined €50,000 after a team member re-entered the grid area after the formation lap had commenced.
It soon emerged that the unnamed Red Bull employee had attempted to interfere with a strip of tape left by McLaren on the pit wall to act as a visual marker for Norris on the grid.
And Red Bull has wasted no time making fun of McLaren’s disqualification in Las Vegas, with its sim racing team posting a short clip to social media.
The video – entitled ‘How Not To Get A DQ…’ – shows footage of the car setup screen of F1 video game with the front and rear ride heights moved to the maximum possible level.
The clip, which has been ‘liked’ by more than 100,000 times on Instagram at the time of writing, has the accompanying caption: “Just a bit of friendly advice.”
The official account of the EA Sports F1 game was among those to reply to the post, commenting: “We do not endorse this savagery (funny tho).”
The clip has emerged after Calum Nicholas, the former Red Bull mechanic who now acts as a team ambassador, also hinted at being amused by McLaren’s fate in Las Vegas.
In a post to social media early on Monday morning, Nicholas wrote: “I’ve held back so many jokes today because I’m making a concerted effort to be a grown up professional.
“It’s fine… but not as much fun.”
More on Red Bull Racing and McLaren from PlanetF1.com
In a statement issued to PlanetF1.com by McLaren, team principal Andrea Stella confirmed that the Woking-based outfit is “investigating” the cause of the MCL39’s high level of plank wear in Vegas.
He claimed that “accidental damage” sustained by both Norris and Piastri, resulting in an increase in the movement of the floor, could have been a factor behind the technical infringement.
Stella said: “During the race, both cars experienced unexpected, high levels of porpoising not seen in the practice sessions, which led to excessive contact with the ground.
“We are investigating the reasons for this behaviour of the car, including the effect of accidental damage sustained by both cars, which we found after the race, and that led to an increase of movement of the floor.
“As the FIA noted, the breach was unintentional, there was no deliberate attempt to circumvent the regulations, and mitigating circumstances also existed.
“We apologise to Lando and Oscar for the loss of points today, at a critical time in their Championship campaigns after two strong performances from them all weekend. As a team, we also apologise to our partners and fans, whose support means so much.
“While this outcome is extremely disappointing, we remain fully focused on the last two races of the season.”
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