F1 News
Red Bull and AlphaTauri under magnifying glass: "Need to tackle it"
- Ludo van Denderen
AlphaTauri are strengthening ties with sister team Red Bull Racing as they look to improve on their 2023 F1 results. The Italians are going to have more people working at the factory near Red Bull's factory in Milton Keynes (making exchanges of ideas easier), while the maximum number of adoptable parts will also be used. Among rival teams, all this has been raising eyebrows for some time.
Zak Brown (CEO of McLaren) is one of the people speaking out about the increasing inner partnership between AlphaTauri and Red Bull Racing. At a press event for the launch of the new livery of the McLaren cars, he once again expressed his concerns. He believes that fairness in the sport will be under pressure if AlphaTauri can make hassle-free use of Red Bull Racing's expertise and resources, as both teams have the same owner.
Brown sees times changing in Formula 1
Brown cites that such close collaborations with Formula 1 teams have indeed been agreed to in the past. That was the time when there was a big difference in budgets; with the top teams very rich and the small ones needing every dollar to survive at all. After the introduction of the budget cap, McLaren's CEO says the playing field is level for everyone, and all teams have the ability to design and produce all parts themselves. That way, Formula 1 is truly a constructors' championship.
Brown calls on the FIA and the other F1 team bosses to make changes to the regulations as soon as possible: "So I think everyone's playing with the same size of bat, to use a baseball term, and therefore that's not necessary. But it might give someone an unfair advantage, and I think that's something we need to tackle with the sport quickly," Brown said, according to Motorsport.com.