{"id":627775,"date":"2026-04-24T11:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T11:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/627775\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T11:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T11:40:14","slug":"red-bull-style-b-teams-risk-compromising-fairness-in-f1-zak-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/627775\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull-style B teams risk \u2018compromising fairness\u2019 in F1 \u2013 Zak Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

McLaren<\/a> Racing CEO Zak Brown says the \u2018A team and B team\u2019 model risks \u201ccompromising the integrity of sporting fairness\u201d in Formula 1.<\/p>\n

Close ties between teams have been scrutinized throughout the last two decades, during which Red Bull has owned two F1 outfits, and even prior to that \u2013 for instance when Sauber\u2019s Ferrari-powered backmarker Norberto Fontana blocked the Scuderia\u2019s title rival Jacques Villeneuve<\/a> in the 1997 title decider.<\/p>\n

Brown was asked about the issue shortly after Red Bull revealed it was hiring sister squad Racing Bulls<\/a>\u2019 deputy technical director Andrea Landi as its head of performance, with just two months and a half separating the announcement from Landi\u2019s first day at work in Milton Keynes, on 1 July.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

This contrasted with McLaren\u2019s capture of Red Bull\u2019s head of racing Gianpiero Lambiase, who also acts as Max Verstappen<\/a>\u2019s race engineer. The Woking-based squad might have to wait until 2028 before it can get ahold of the Italian.<\/p>\n

But this is not just about the Austrian firm, Brown insisted. The American also brought up the Haas model, with the design office of F1\u2019s smallest squad located in Maranello. Several members of the Scuderia previously moved to Haas, including current Mercedes<\/a> deputy technical director Simone Resta, who was Ferrari<\/a>\u2019s head of chassis engineering before he instantaneously joined Haas for three years as its technical director.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mercedes is considering acquiring a 24% share in the Alpine F1 team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think A\/B teams, we need to get away from as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Co-ownership \u2013 which we have one group now, and I understand how that came about, why it came about \u2013 in today’s day and age, that’s permitted in almost, if not all, major forms of sport,\u201d Brown said, in reference to when Red Bull bought the Jaguar team to join the grid in 2005, then took over the ailing Minardi outfit in 2006.<\/p>\n

\"Christian <\/p>\n

Christian Klien, Red Bull Racing, leading Christijan Albers, Minardi<\/p>\n

Photo by: Sutton Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt runs a real high risk of compromising the integrity of sporting fairness. What would turn fans off as if they don’t feel like there’s 11 independent racing teams?<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been vocal about it from day one. We’ve seen it play out on track in a sporting way. Daniel Ricciardo<\/a> taking the fastest-lap point away from us to help the other team. We’ve seen IP violations on the Aston Martin\/Racing Point on brake ducts.\u201d<\/p>\n

RB driver Ricciardo pitted late in the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix to snatch the fastest-lap point away from Red Bull racer Max Verstappen\u2019s title rival Lando Norris<\/a>; the second element refers to controversy regarding the 2020 Racing Point (now Aston Martin) car, which was nicknamed the Pink Mercedes due to its similarities with the 2019 title-winning Silver Arrow. This earned the team a 15-point deduction in the 2020 championship.<\/p>\n

\"Lance <\/p>\n

Lance Stroll, Racing Point<\/p>\n

Photo by: Charles Coates \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve seen employees move overnight, where we either have to wait and sometimes make financial deals, which then impacts us on the cost cap,\u201d Brown continued. \u201cSo, when you see other [staff] that move from one to the other without financial compensation, that’s an unfair financial advantage, that’s an unfair sporting advantage. We’ve seen Ferrari and Haas move people back and forth. We know IP is a lot in your head.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, you put that all together; can you imagine a Premier League game when you’ve got two teams owned by the same group, one’s going to get relegated if they lose, the other can afford to lose? And that’s what we run the risk of.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I think having engine power units as suppliers is as far as it should go. And then in my view, all 11 teams should be absolutely as independent as possible, because I think it has a high risk and we have seen it compromise the integrity of the sport, and that will be what turns fans off quicker than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Zak <\/p>\n

Zak Brown, McLaren<\/p>\n

Photo by: Mark Sutton \/ Formula 1 via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Asked if anything has changed over the years to try and prevent the two-team model, Brown replied: \u201cIt was a big discussion in the last Concorde. I wrote to the FIA and Formula 1 last year on the topic, because we see things happen all the time and we flag them. I think there’s a higher level of awareness and watching by the FIA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m glad to see quite frankly that the Racing Bulls and the Red Bull don’t look like the same race car. I’ve had these conversations with Laurent [Mekies, Red Bull team principal] \u2013 I’m not picking on him in particular but he’s the only one who’s got two teams \u2013 and he’s been very open and transparent of, \u2018Hey, if you see something that you don’t like, let’s just chat about it\u2019. So, I think they recognise it and don’t want to push the envelope.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were discussions in the Concorde Agreement about, \u2018Should over time one of the teams be divested?\u2019. But also, I have a huge appreciation for what they’ve done for the sport and how that was done a long time ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, as long as it’s managed, watched\u2026 but certainly adding to it would be a mistake for the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown says the \u2018A team and B team\u2019 model risks \u201ccompromising the integrity of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,826,813,816,5241,913,9107,946,304308,85],"class_list":["post-627775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-haas-f1-team","tag-mclaren","tag-racing-bulls","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-red-bull-style-b-teams-risk-u2018compromising-fairnessu2019-in-f1-u2013-zak-brown","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}