Zak Brown concerned by "competitive advantage" from team alliances

Formula 1

Brown concerned by "competitive advantage" from team alliances

Red Bull and AlphaTauri may have a financial advantage with budget cap introduction

Ewan Gale

Monday 25 January 2021 18:29

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has suggested rival teams with alliances in Formula 1 will be afforded a "competitive advantage" with the new budget cap.

From this season, F1 has introduced a $145million budget cap, albeit excluding driver salaries and the top-three team earners beyond the drivers, along with a number of other factors.

The cap will be reduced to $140m for 2022 and then $135m carrying through to the 2025 season.

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Brown is concerned that teams such as Red Bull and AlphaTauri will see an increased benefit of the budget cap due to the alliance between the squads.

“I think having two teams, especially in the case of Red Bull and AlphaTauri with them officially under one ownership, I think there has got to be synergies there that will give them a competitive advantage," he explained.

“There is one owner behind those two teams and I think you are seeing AlphaTauri being extremely competitive in the second half of the year and I think that is probably benefited from having two teams.

“But yes, for sure, when you have teams sharing wind tunnels and collaborating, that is a concern that they are going to get a sporting advantage."

Another collaboration that caught the eye in 2020 was the Mercedes-Racing Point tie-up during which the Silverstone-based team was stripped of 15 points and fined for running illegally designed brake ducts.

Brown is hoping any repeat of the saga will be avoided and F1 will remain as close to 10 sole manufacturers as realistically as possible.

“We hope that the FIA have closed the loop on the degree of what we saw Racing Point do," he added.

"We need to make sure that everyone remains as independent as possible. I think that, if it is within the rulebook, that’s fine.

"We just need to make sure that everything that has gone on is within the rulebooks because, as we know, this year, the brake ducts [on Racing Point] were not.”