McLaren boss Zak Brown recently expressed his concerns over the association of Red Bull with AlphaTauri, emerging from the former team’s ownership of the latter. The Franz Tost-led team made significant improvements in its car during the back end of the season, presumably arising from Red Bull lending some of the top engineers to the team.
As the 2023 season neared its close, the Faenza-based team significantly improved its car’s cornering abilities. Given Red Bull stopped developments on the RB19 somewhere around August, the surge gave way to talks arising of a supposed research sharing within the teams.
Motorsport.com quoted Brown’s words, who claims his team has “some big concerns over the alliance between AlphaTauri and Red Bull.”
️ Zak Brown on the Red Bull and AlphaTauri partnership: “We are very concerned about the alliance between #AlphaTauri and Red Bull. I believe this is something that will need to be addressed in the future. So, I think our sport still has a long way to…”#F1 #Formula1 #McLaren pic.twitter.com/tUm8sqX3XR
— McLaren F1 Updates (@TheMcLarenZone) December 19, 2023
He added the partnership of the two teams is something the sport should address in the future and that the sport has a long way to go to ensure everyone is truly independent. Brown said, “So, I still think the sport has a way to go to make sure that everyone is truly independent.”
“[It could benefit Red Bull in] a lot of different ways. There is a reason why they are moving a lot of their people from Italy.”, stated the McLaren CEO.
McLaren recently released an official letter from Zak Brown reflecting on the team’s performances in 2023 while looking ahead to the 2024 season. In the same letter, Brown expressed his concerns over a management’s dual ownership in the sport while calling for changes in the regulations of F1 to ensure a level playing field for everyone involved.
“It’s an unhealthy situation because it impacts decisions made both on and off the track.”, stated Brown in McLaren’s letter.
While Zak Brown raises a concern, Red Bull put up a stinging reply for their rivals
Zak Brown’s statements are not the first time a team has raised concerns over the increasingly solidifying ties between AlphaTauri and Red Bull. Addressing the same, Christian Horner presented a stinging “pink Mercedes” from 2020 comment to shut down all talks.
Furthermore, he claimed that the subject of dual ownership never arose during the commission’s discussion. Hence, the Red Bull management was within their rights to own a controlling stake in AlphaTauri.
Christian Horner says there’s no risk of a ‘Pink Mercedes’ in Red Bull/AlphaTauri collaboration
“We’re an awfully long way from a ‘Pink Mercedes’. There are some transferable components that are clearly listed within the regulations that you’re allowed to supply and that’s what… pic.twitter.com/n7QzkdmDZx
— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) December 1, 2023
He added, “There are some transferable components that are clearly listed within the regulations that you’re allowed to supply. And that’s why they get.”
However, he added the cars are fundamentally different and only share the basic components. Horner turned the blame on other teams by stating that the McLaren and Aston Martin cars shared a much more similar concept as opposed to Red Bull and AlphaTauri.
