McLaren chief executive Zak Brown has renewed his long-standing criticism of multi-ownership and close team ties in Formula 1 amid Mercedes’ interest in potentially buying a minority stake in Alpine.
Brown is a long-time of critic of what he calls “A-B teams” where one outfit, through either ownership structure or a technical partnership, has a deeper relationship with another.
Red Bull have owned two teams since 2005, Ferrari have a long-standing technical partnership with Haas while it emerged last month that Mercedes were among the parties interested in buying the 24 per cent shareholding in the Alpine team currently held by Otro Capital, a US investment firm.
The Renault Group are Alpine’s majority owners and Flavio Briatore, the Enstone outfit’s executive advisor, said that “normally [in] one company, 75 per cent decide and the 25 per cent is a passenger, and this is the reality.”
Although such arrangements are permitted, Brown, whose McLaren team are powered by Mercedes engines, said his view on the matter “applies to anybody and everybody” and that “regardless of who it is, I frown upon it”. Brown believes cross-team ties should not go beyond customer power-unit supply in future.
He told Sky Sports News: “I’ve been saying for 10 years I don’t like co-ownership, I don’t like A-B teams.
“I think it runs a high risk of compromising the sporting integrity of the sport.
“We have seen fastest laps from one team, Daniel Ricciardo [when driving for Racing Bulls] take a point away from McLaren to help Max [Verstappen] and Red Bull [at the 2024 Singapore GP].
Zak Brown has reiterated his concerns about multi-team ownership in F1
“We have seen IP transfer from one team to another. We’ve seen staff move from one team to another overnight where I have to wait until 2028. So they get a sporting advantage there, sometimes that comes with some remuneration – they’re not going to have to write a cheque, so it’s a cost-cap advantage.”
Speaking to reporters at a McLaren media event, Brown added: “Can you imagine a Premier League game and 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. That’s what we run the risk of.
“So 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.”
Brown said he raised his concerns on the matter during the last round of Concorde Agreement discussions between F1’s stakeholders and said: “I think it’s being managed now” but that “we’ve seen incidents [in the past] and we need to do away with it, not increase it.”
And while he says he has “huge appreciation” for what Red Bull have done with their investment over two decades in F1, and is aware of the back story of why they ended up taking over the struggling Minardi team in 2005 to add a second outfit to their ownership, he believes that such a model should not be repeated.
“I’m glad to see, quite frankly, that the Racing Bulls and the Red Bull don’t look like the same race car,” he added.
“I think I’ve had these conversations with Laurent [Mekies, Red Bull’s team principal], I’m not picking on him in particular, but he’s the only one who’s got two teams and he’s been very open and transparent of, ‘hey, if you see something that you don’t like, let’s just chat about it.’ So I think they recognise it and don’t want to push the envelope.
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“There were discussions in the Concorde Agreement about should over time one of the teams be divested, but also have a huge appreciation for what they’ve done for the sport and how that was done a long time ago. So I think as long as it’s managed and watched… but certainly adding to it, I think, would be a mistake for the sport.”
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff last month said they are not looking to make Alpine – to whom they also supply engines from this year – a junior team to their works outfit, but that they were assessing the merits of a minority investment with Otro Capital considering whether to stell its shareholding.
“We are looking at it from different angles, and we haven’t come to any conclusions,” said Wolff. “We want to know whether it makes sense.”
A consortium involving former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has also been confirmed as an interested party in the shares.
Formula 1 returns on May 1-3 with the Miami Grand Prix, the season’s second Sprint weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
