F1 News: Zak Brown Urges FIA to Break Red Bull’s 2-Team Operations to Level the Playing Field

McLaren Boss Zak Brown has been one of the key members in Formula 1 who has pointed out Red Bull’s ownership of two teams. Reported first on December 22, 2023, when Zak Brown wrote an open letter expressing his concerns over Visa Cash App Red Bull (formerly AlphaTauri) and Red Bull’s alliance. However, this is not the first time this has been brought up.

Back in 2008 and 2009, when the team operated under the name Toro Rosso, many questions were raised when the B team won Monza with a car similar to Red Bull. This time, it is Zak Brown who is raising the concerns following the budget cap put into place. With the evolution of Formula One heading towards providing teams an equal footing when it comes to races, Brown has continued to discuss the fairness of the situation.

Zak Brown calls out Red Bull for having two teams

Brown has been vocal about the cause for over a month now and it seems that he has spoken about Red Bull recently again. This time Sky Sports interviewed Brown and asked about his thoughts on the Red Bull and Visa Cash App Red Bull. With rumors around the paddocks of paranoia setting in, the reporter asked Papaya’s boss if he was paranoid about Red Bull’s dominance. To that, Brown said, “No, I am actually speaking in the wider interest of the sport. You know, if you look at every other major sport, you are not even allowed to own two teams.”

Brown explained, “You cannot even go further to get an A/B team relationship. When they started 15 years ago, there was a huge gap between the top teams and bottom teams, now that there is a budget cap in place, all 10 teams are pretty much running under the cap, so it’s all kind of an equal playing field.” With the way Formula 1 is moving towards reducing the gap in the participating teams in terms of budget, Zak Brown has started to voice his belief that having two teams is unfair to all the other teams.

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He explained his discussions with the FIA council and stated “So to have two ownerships, I can tell you from sitting in the FIA commission meetings, the voting is always the same, even when in theory it shouldn’t be in one of the team’s best interests.” Brown concluded by saying, “The definition of the constructors is where a team develops their own IP, so I just think that the sport now moved on to an equal playing field, so to have an A/B relationship, to have co-ownership of two teams is not what the fans expect, so the FIA really needs to do something about it.”

However, this is not the first time concerns have been voiced against Red Bull operating two teams in Formula 1. Back in 2008, similar red flags were raised.

What were the allegations against Red Bull and Toro Rosso in 2008?

Back in 2008, Red Bull had just started its sister team, Toro Rosso and as soon as it entered F1, it started achieving podiums and even victory. Sebastian Vettel took the lead, finishing P1 while driving for the new team, and questions were raised.

Former Red Bull Team Principal Franz Tost spoke about how the rules have been changed to make it harder for the two teams to share resources. Although regulations have been followed since there have been questions about Red Bull buying into the later AlphaTauri’s wind tunnel time.

In 2009, the Toro Rosso STR4 was highly identical to the car the Red Bull RB5 from that year. This raised many suspicions within the paddocks, with appeals being made for it ever since. With both the cars being designed by Adrian Newey, the beginning of collaborations between the A/B team was inevitable.

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With Zak Brown’s appeal, there is a chance that a slot for a new team opens up. Currently, Red Bull is stuck between controversies, and with the team under pressure, will they be able to perform in 2024? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.