“My issue is the rules,” he said ahead of the first race of the season in Bahrain. “When you have sharing of facilities; you watch on Netflix that the Red Bull team principal is making a decision on the driver that’s going in the AlphaTauri; when Helmut [Marko] is saying we’re going to do everything we can within the rules to bring the two together; when you hear their CEO saying we need to use their suspension, because that’s the second most important part of the racing car. That doesn’t strike me being as being an independent constructor at all.”
Previously, in an open letter written last year, Brown also stated that “most other major sports prohibit the ownership of two teams within the same league because of the potential obvious damage it causes to competition.
“It is an unhealthy situation,” he added. “Because it impacts decisions made on and off the track. Whether it’s about having access to more data, sharing components, staff, or even having influence on a strategic vote, it’s not in the spirit of the regulation”.
Mercedes CEO Toto Wolff — whose team supplies parts to McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams — largely agreed with Brown’s concerns and called for the FIA to look into the regulations which governs the subject.
“We are a constructor sport,” said the German. “[When a two teams have the] same shareholding, same location, share of facilities, it’s clear that some ambiguity is always gonna be left with other competitors. I think what we need to look at is the regulations. Are the regulations robust enough? Are they policed well enough for us to be to feel in a safe place? Are we seeing some potential loopholes [being exploited]? This can all be reset in 2026.”
In response to his rival’s concerns, RB team principal Laurent Mekies assured them that the team were operating well within the current regulations and were focused on improving the team as a standalone constructor.
“There is a clear set of regulations today and we operate 100% within that set of regulations,” he said. “I invite anyone if they have any doubt on sporting, technical or financial regulations and it we comply with them, they can go to the FIA and ask them to further investigate anything.
“I’m not saying that they are right or wrong. But all the development we are doing to make the team stronger and to make the team more independent. We are growing the team, we are growing our infrastructure, we are growing our facilities in order to be more and more independent because that’s the way we’ll go faster.
“We are here to compete with the nine other teams that may be owned by the same shareholders or not. We will compete as high as our competitiveness will allow us to do so.”
Visa Cash App RB drivers
Visa Cash App RB is retaining its driver line-up for 2024, combining Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo.
But it’s a holding formation ahead of 2025 when both drivers will be looking to make their case to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull, while also looking over their shoulders at reserve driver Liam Lawson, who impressed as a stand-in after Ricciardo broke his hand in an FP1 accident at Zandvoort. Over five grands prix, Lawson consistently beat Tsunoda on race day and scored his first F1 points during a brilliant showing in Singapore. F2 drivers Isack Hadjar and Ayumu Iwasa have also shown promise, and will be hoping that they can force themselves into contention with a strong showing in 2024.