Formula 1 has allowed an “unhealthy” situation to develop by allowing individual organisations to own more than one team, according to McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has said.
Brown used an “open letter” published on his team’s website to call on F1 to ban any organisation from owning multiple teams in the series.
Soft drink manufacturer Red Bull owns both the Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri teams. It purchased the latter at the end of 2005 and originally branded it as Toro Rosso, Italian for ‘Red Bull’.
However some team principals have begun to question whether teams sharing the same owner should be outlawed. Speaking exclusively to RaceFans in October, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner noted “there is a lot of other sports where that is not allowed” and “this will be for sure an argument which sooner or later will come up.”
Brown made the same point in his letter today, writing “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.
“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 [or] personnel, or even having influence over a strategic vote, it’s not in the spirit of the regulations.”
He believes sharing of some parts, including power units, should be allowed. McLaren recently extended its commitment to buy engines and hybrid drivetrains from Mercedes.
But Brown wants to see the rule makers do more to ensure teams operate independently of each other.
“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,” he said. “Formula 1 should be true to its brand, and every team – except power units – should be totally independent of each other.
“I believe Formula 1 fans universally believe in fairness in competition and a level playing field, and would reject any actions that compromise the true spirit of competition within Formula 1. Part sharing of information, shared ownership models, and strategic alliances within the sporting fabric of Formula 1 will only serve to undermine the fans’ belief in fair and fierce competition.”
AlphaTauri will change names again next year. Its cars appeared under the title…
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