McLaren CEO Zak Brown has explained the reasons for his concerns about Red Bull's ownership of AlphaTauri and the implications of the smaller team's relocation of key aerodynamics and marketing operations from Faenza to the UK.
Brown said that it raised questions about whether dual team ownership was something that was necessary in F1 any longer, compared to 20 years ago when energy drinks billionaire Dieter Mateschitz bought Jaguar and Minardi.
The former was rebranded Red Bull while the latter became a junior driver development squad named Toro Rosso. It's since been rebranded AlphaTauri and is expected to race under another, to-be-announced new name in 2024.
Long-time team boss Franz Tost exited the team at the end of last season, and former Ferrari race director Laurent Mekies will take over this year amid a full restructuring of the team's set-up.
"AlphaTauri is, from what I understand, moving to the UK which I think will benefit both teams," Brown said, reiterating his worries about the close relationship between the two teams.
"This A/B team and co-ownership – which is a whole other level of A/B team – is of big concern, to ours and the health of the sport and the fairness of the sport," he argued.
Brown said that when rules about such A/B teams were introduced, "the sport was in a different place."
"You had a huge gap between people like ourselves who had huge budgets and smaller teams. Now everybody is pretty much at the budget cap, so everyone’s playing with the same size bat, to use a baseball term.
“Max [Verstappen] made it the most dominant season by one driver/team ever," he acknowledged. "But if you take Max out of the equation – which you can’t – you’d have, I think, for the first time five teams with seven or more podiums.
"I can’t recall a team tenth in the constructors' championship always being a threat to being in Q3," he pointed out. “I think we’re all used to the team in P10 being three seconds off pole.
"Therefore [the A/B relationship] isn't necessary, but it might give someone an unfair advantage. I think that’s something we need to tackle with the sport quickly.
"Red Bull certainly seems like they didn’t develop last year to the level they could if they wanted to, so that could be an unpleasant surprise for all of us," he added. “Hats off to Adrian Newey and his team, they’ve just done a better job than all of us.
"But hopefully that sort of domination will be a thing of the past, and what we will end up with is a much more competitive grid, because we do have that with 19 of the cars.”
Speaking of the budget cap, Brown said the introduction of spending controls top F1 "has been outstanding for the sport", adding: "I think the budget cap has had the intended consequence of making the field much more competitive.
"I can tell you from sitting on pit wall, there’s no team when we’re looking at times that we don’t feel is a threat to getting into Q3, and I think that’s the benefit of the budget cap."
McLaren overcame a poor start6 to 2023 to become arguably the second-quickest car on the grid behind Red Bull by the season finale, and hopes to pick up the momentum again heading into the new season to become a race-winning threat.
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