diff --git a/vecgeom.spec b/vecgeom.spec
index 2487cb1b65f..c0baee2ce5e 100644
--- a/vecgeom.spec
+++ b/vecgeom.spec
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ cmake ../%{n}-%{realversion} \
   -DCMAKE_AR=$(which gcc-ar) \
   -DCMAKE_RANLIB=$(which gcc-ranlib) \
   -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
+  -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASE="-O2 -DNDEBUG" \
   -DCMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE=TRUE \
 %if "%{?arch_build_flags}"
   -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="%{arch_build_flags}" \