diff --git a/vecgeom.spec b/vecgeom.spec
index 23d7f3edda8..b3478ffada7 100644
--- a/vecgeom.spec
+++ b/vecgeom.spec
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ cmake ../%{n}-%{realversion} \
   -DCMAKE_AR=$(which gcc-ar) \
   -DCMAKE_RANLIB=$(which gcc-ranlib) \
   -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
-  -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASE="-O2 -DNDEBUG" \
   -DNO_SPECIALIZATION=ON \
   -DBACKEND=Scalar \
 %ifarch x86_64