Zak Brown, McLaren's chief executive, issues latest call for change to the regulations over parts sharing between F1 teams; Red Bull and AlphaTauri reject suggestions alliance could create unfair advantage amid cost-cap era
Thursday 18 January 2024 17:26, UK
McLaren chief Zak Brown has renewed his calls for changes to be made to Formula 1's rules, expressing fresh concern about the relationship between Red Bull and sister team AlphaTauri.
Red Bull and AlphaTauri have rejected the concerns.
F1's regulations allow for certain 'transferrable components' designed by one team to be bought by another, with AlphaTauri among several to make use of this rule. Haas also have a wide-ranging technical partnership with Ferrari, which includes an office at the Italian giant's Maranello factory.
Under new senior management, the Italy-based AlphaTauri team are expected to soon unveil a wholesale rebrand for the 2024 season in a year when they are deepening the ties of their existing UK operation, currently located in Bicester, with the world champion Red Bull team's Milton Keynes base.
But Brown is not happy such relationships, which he labelled an "A and B" team", are still permitted by the regulations at all, particularly since the advent of the sport's budget cap with annual spending now capped at $135m to try and close up the field.
"We have some work to do around the rules," the McLaren CEO told Sky Sports News at the launch of his team's 2024 livery.
"I think the A-B team is a real problem moving forward. I think co-ownership, you don't really have that in any other sport, and I think that provides a lot of conflict of interest.
"So now that we have a budget cap we need to be really a sport of total fairness and I think any time you have an entity that owns two teams, or an A and B relationship, I think it really starts to compromise the integrity of sporting fairness.
"That's something that really needs to be tackled."
Describing it as a "big concern," Brown added in a press conference: "AlphaTauri is, from what I understand, moving to the UK, which I think will benefit both teams."
Sky Sports understands that the AlphaTauri factory in Faenza, Italy will continue to operate and there will be no wholesale transfer of staff to the UK. Although AlphaTauri's Bicester operation will be augmented and some AlphaTauri personnel will move to the Milton Keynes campus in preparation for the team's adoption of the Red Bull-Ford power unit from 2026 onwards, which both teams will race.
The Red Bull-owned teams insist both will remain autonomous and free to race each other and reject any suggestion the teams' future arrangements would give them an unfair advantage in F1's cost-cap era, with the planned evolution of both teams explored and conducted with the visibility of F1 and the FIA within the sporting and technical regulations.
The list of 'transferrable components' permitted to be shared between teams includes gearbox, rear and front suspension, clutches, and rear impact structure.
While Red Bull are the only outfit to own two teams, Haas have had a partnership with Ferrari since entering F1 in 2016, while Williams and Aston Martin take Mercedes' gearbox.
But Brown wants to see a total shake-up of what is currently allowed - and believes the "majority" of rival teams agree with him.
He added: "I'd like to effectively make sure that as the constructors everyone develops their own IP [Intellectual Property], that's what a constructor is, that's one of the big areas in which we are remunerated, and so sharing of parts and sharing of IP, which is legal in some elements, needs to come to an end and come to an end quickly.
"There will be some other teams that have a different view, but I think those teams are in the minority. I think the majority of the teams would agree with everything I've just said."
Speaking on an appearance on the Sky Sports F1 podcast in December, Red Bull team principal and CEO Christian Horner said AlphaTauri remained independent of his team and "they've got their own ideas" how to improve their performance.
"AlphaTauri is owned by the same shareholders as Red Bull Racing, but of course, the way that they operate is independent from Red Bull Racing," said Horner.
"But they take benefit of the parts that are allowed to be transferred, like the gearbox and the suspension and so on, in the same way that Williams and Aston Martin have done so with with Mercedes or Haas with Ferrari.
"They're based in Italy but they have a new management coming in Peter Bayer as CEO and Laurent Mekies as team principal. They're both competitive guys, they both want to compete to move the team forward.
"So It has a new drive behind it and essentially they're a customer of Red Bull Racing. They are designing their own car, they've got their own ideas. Whilst they use the same wind tunnel and certain components, not all aerodynamic surfaces as per the regs [which] they have to conceive and develop themselves."
AlphaTauri have installed former Ferrari sporting director Laurent Mekies as their new team principal after long-serving Franz Tost's departure and have Peter Bayer, a former senior figure at the FIA, as chief executive, in a new-look management structure, while eight-time race winner Daniel Ricciardo stays on alongside Japan's Yuki Tsunoda in the most-experienced driver line-up in the team's history.
A late-season surge in performance aided up car upgrades lifted AlphaTauri from 10th to eighth in the Constructors' Championship ahead of Haas and Alfa Romeo. Their joint-best season finishes of sixth came in 2008, under the Toro Rosso name, and 2021.
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