Not Much To Gain From Alliance Between Red Bull and AlphaTauri Says Allison

Saturday, 20 January 2024 at 05:00

Mercedes's technical director, James Allison, gave his two cents on the growing relationship between two sister teams - Red Bull and AlphaTauri.

The alliance between Red Bull and AlphaTauri is a topic that has been a more and more frequent part of discussions around the fairness of the regulations ever since the end of the 2023 season.

The person who has been perhaps pushing it the most by expressing his concerns publicly three times already is the CEO of McLaren - Zak Brown.

Brown's main problem with the alliance of the two sister teams is they are both 100% owned by the same company - Red Bull GmbH. The CEO hasn't directly accused Red Bull or AlphaTauri.

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However, he suggested that a relationship between these two companies could lead to an unfair advantage. James Allison, on the other hand, implied the rules are too strict and there is no advantage to be taken by either of the teams.

"The way that rule is written is very broad and very powerful, and it pretty much makes any communication not permitted."

While teams are allowed to share a few components of their cars (specifically outlined in regulations), the rules pretty much forbid everything else that could give an advantage to the two Red Bull-owned teams.

"If two teams have a strong relationship with each other, it can only really be a strong commercial relationship. It cannot be a strong technical or a strong sporting relationship because the rules forbid that."

Consequently, Mercedes's technical director didn't seem to be too worried about the alliance between Red Bull and AlphaTauri. He added:

"If it turns out that there is one, that is something that would cause unhappiness. So, there is not much mileage to seek a close relationship with another team from a technical point of view because it is not allowed."