Brown Calls For Change In Red Bull/AlphaTauri Collaboration In Open Letter

Saturday, 23 December 2023 at 03:00

McLaren F1 team's CEO Zak Brown vocalized his concerns about the Red Bull and AlphaTauri collaboration in a letter published on McLaren's website.

Zak Brown has previously expressed big concerns about Red Bull's and AlphaTauri's close collaboration as he stated it could benefit both teams in numerous ways.

In a letter published on McLaren's website on the 21st of December, Brown reviewed the 2023 season, all its ups and downs, but also returned to the issue of close collaboration between the two F1 teams. He wrote:

"Most other major sports prohibit the ownership of two teams within the same league because of the obvious potential damage that it does to competition."

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While it has not been proven to be happening, Red Bull and AlphaTauri could benefit immensely in case they shared development data, and that is just one of many examples. The CEO continued:

"It’s an unhealthy situation because it impacts decisions made both on and off the track. Whether it’s a case of having access to more data, sharing components/personnel, or even having influence over a strategic vote, it’s not in the spirit of the regulations."

The Red Bull Racing team principal addressed the situation as he said the only collaboration between Red Bull and AlphaTauri is that the Italian team will receive sharable components that are allowed and well-defined by regulations.

Christian Horner said he believes AlphaTauri's car looks less like Red Bull in comparison to others like McLaren or Aston Martin. Nevertheless, Brown wrote he would like to see a change in regulations moving forward.

"It’s important to stand up for independence, competition and fairness, and I’d like to see changes in the regulations to ensure that in future, they stop influence spreading from one team to another through strategic alliances and especially through ownership."

The 52-year-old wrote, "especially through ownership," because if one company owns two teams, they are much more likely to collaborate for mutual benefit.

The only two teams owned by the same company in F1 are Red Bull and AlphaTauri. Brown added there should be no sharing between teams except for power units, which most of the teams on the grid aren't able to produce themselves.

"Formula 1 should be true to its brand, and every team - except Power Units - should be totally independent of each other."