What is really fuelling McLaren’s concerns over the Red Bull/RB F1 alliance

As the most vocal on the matter, his remarks have prompted some to suggest that his worries about the ever-closer ties between Red Bull’s two F1 teams are being fuelled by self-interest.

The cynics suggest that he simply fears seeing his own McLaren squad beaten by the revamped RB squad that stands to benefit from Red Bull’s technical knowledge.

But as F1 cars returns to action in Bahrain testing this week, Brown has made it clear that the truth is very different – and that there are wider issues at play for the whole of grand prix racing here.

Rather than this being something aimed at stopping Red Bull and RB from gaining an unfair advantage from working together, Brown says he has no doubts that both teams are operating fully within the regulations.

Instead, his ire is aimed firmly at F1 regulations that he thinks are no longer suitable for how the series has evolved under the cost cap.

“I don’t think they are cheating,” Brown told Motorsport.com about the Red Bull/RB situation. “But the rules aren’t fit for purpose.

“There’s not another major sport that I know of where you can own two teams that compete.

“It’s not allowed in any other sport, because of political influence, and player trading. It’s for all the reasons you can think of.”

The advantages at play

The previous focus of the benefit of the alliance between Red Bull and RB has mistakenly been over technical gains – about potentially sharing designs and ideas to make faster progress on track.

This is something that would most likely be outside the regulations and something that the FIA has spoken openly about being able to effectively police.

For Brown, the true gains from having an A and B team working together go far beyond simply making better components.

There are scenarios where there can be obvious sporting advantages, such as splitting strategies in races to guarantee the best outcome. This could especially play out in critical championship finales.

“Imagine it’s Max against Oscar,” said Brown. “Oscar qualifies 10th, and Max on pole. The best strategy is to start on mediums. But the RBs qualified ninth and 11th, so let’s put them both on soft and compromise the others.”

Brown also says that last year’s Singapore GP incident, where AlphaTauri did not turn up for a hearing into Verstappen blocking Yuki Tsunoda in qualifying, was a case in…