It started as a whisper in the paddock, a subtle shift in the Formula 1 hierarchy that was almost invisible to the untrained eye. But for those watching closely, the resurgence of Red Bull Racing in the latter half of the season was nothing short of, as one team principal described it, “spectacular”. Since the summer break, Max Verstappen has been a force of nature, refusing to finish lower than second, racking up three dominant wins at Monza, Baku, and Austin.

This kind of sudden, season-altering turnaround demands an explanation. For weeks, rivals and pundits pointed to the obvious: the flashy, visible upgrades. There was the bold new floor introduced at Monza, the new front wing that appeared in Singapore. But the truth, as it so often does in the hyper-competitive world of F1, was deeper. It was quieter. It was a secret that Red Bull’s rivals at McLaren, in a moment of candid frustration, have now pointed directly at.

The real story isn’t about the parts everyone could see. It’s about the parts they couldn’t. It’s about ride height.

In the complex world of modern ground-effect race cars, the most critical relationship is the one between the car’s floor and the track surface. Over 60% of a car’s precious downforce is generated from underneath the floor. The principle is simple: the lower you run the car, the more powerful the suction, the faster you go through the corners. But this simple principle is governed by a brutal, unforgiving rule.

You cannot push it too far.

Beneath every F1 car is a wooden “plank” and skid blocks. If you run the car too low, especially on bumpy circuits, this plank wears away. If it wears down by more than the allowed limit, you are disqualified. It’s a fate that famously befell Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at this very same Austin track in 2023. It is the razor’s edge between ultimate performance and total humiliation. And it is on this edge that Red Bull has apparently learned to dance.

It was McLaren’s own team principal, Andrea Stella, who finally put a name to the paddock’s suspicions. “If I needed to or if I had to speculate, this would be where I would put my $1,” Stella stated in Austin, his words cutting through the engineering jargon. He pointed directly to Red Bull’s newfound, uncanny ability to run their car at shockingly low ride heights, a feat made possible by their Monza floor and, more importantly, a “better understanding of how to operate their car”.

Stella even noted that Red Bull’s drivers, including Verstappen, had become “much more vocal about ride and about grounding”. The implication was clear: Red Bull wasn’t just bolting on parts; they had unlocked a new philosophy.

The irony is that McLaren’s insight was born from their own misfortune. The United States Grand Prix should have been another strong weekend for the papaya team. Instead, a disastrous crash in the sprint race involving both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri threw their weekend into chaos. The crash did more than just damage the cars; it destroyed their data.

As Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz explained, McLaren lost all their crucial information on plank wear for the bumpy Austin circuit. They didn’t know how low they could safely run. Without that knowledge, they were forced to be “conservative”. They had to raise the ride height, sacrificing performance, leaving lap time on the table just to avoid a disqualification.

And as McLaren tiptoed, Red Bull attacked. They seemed to know exactly where the limit was. They ran their car “spot-on,” as close to the ground as legally possible, maximizing their downforce and extracting every thousandth of a second, all while keeping their plank intact. While McLaren guessed, Red Bull executed.

So, what is the secret? How has Red Bull managed to tame the plank? Whispers in the paddock, echoed by Sauber’s Inyaki Rueda, suggest a fiendishly clever solution. The key isn’t just running low; it’s how the plank wears. Teams that can manage to shift the wear to the front of the plank can, in turn, run the car’s rear lower without overloading the back of the plank. This asymmetric wear is the “competitive advantage”. For most of the season, McLaren was one of the few teams believed to have mastered this. Now, it seems, Red Bull has quietly caught up and, perhaps, surpassed them.

This isn’t a single upgrade. As Red Bull’s own Laurent Mekies cautiously stated, “It’s a combination of many, many factors”. It’s a symphony of suspension stiffness, kinematics, and a deep, intuitive understanding of how the car breathes over the asphalt.

When Red Bull’s notorious advisor, Dr. Helmut Marko, was confronted with the ride height theory, he didn’t deny it. With his signature Austrian smirk, he simply said, “It’s not a wrong one”. In the coded world of F1, that is a thunderous confirmation.

This “secret” is more than just an engineering win; it’s a fundamental shift in the championship battle. Just weeks ago, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri led the championship. Now, he is “fading under pressure,” with crashes in Baku and struggles in Austin. Lando Norris, while still blindingly fast, lamented in Austin that he “had the pace to win the race” but was undone by small margins and strategy—margins that Red Bull’s newfound pace helped to create.

Verstappen is now closing a once-insurmountable 40-point gap. The momentum has swung, and it has swung violently.

The most chilling part for McLaren? Their development path for 2025 is over. Andrea Stella confirmed it himself: “When it comes to new upgrades, new parts, then this will not happen for the rest of the season”. McLaren shut the door on development, believing they had enough. Red Bull, meanwhile, was just unlocking their car’s true potential.

This is no longer a battle of visible upgrades. It’s a fight in the “invisible” realm—a war waged over chassis stiffness, floor flex, and aerodynamic seals. It’s what Max Verstappen himself hinted at when he spoke of a “different philosophy”, a mindset that relies less on cold data and more on reading the track through the driver’s hands.

While Andrea Stella insists “the outcome of this season is in our hands”, that optimism feels increasingly hollow. Red Bull didn’t just add a part; they added a new dimension of performance. They are not just faster; they are smarter.

As the season barrels towards its climax in Mexico, Brazil, Vegas, and Abu Dhabi, the entire paddock is now scrambling to understand what Red Bull has found. How do you balance maximum suction against an FIA disqualification? The championship, it now seems, could be won or lost by a single millimeter.

The question is no longer if Red Bull has found the ultimate performance ceiling. The question is if anyone, especially a McLaren team with no upgrades left, can possibly catch them before it’s too late.