McLaren F1 boss accuses Red Bull of having 'unhealthy' setup

Zak Brown and Max Verstappen — Photo: © IMAGO

Red Bull

McLaren F1 boss accuses Red Bull of having 'unhealthy' setup

Zak Brown has fired shots at Red Bull

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Monday 27 April 2026 13:54

McLaren F1 boss Zak Brown has once again hit out at the way Red Bull operate alongside Racing Bulls.

Red Bull joined the sport back in 2005, and it didn't take them long before they acquired a sister team, with the Faenza-based outfit becoming Toro Rosso for the 2006 season onwards.

Since then, that team has been called AlphaTauri and VCARB, before landing on the Racing Bulls name for 2025.

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In that time, exceptional driver talents have been blooded at the sister team before being promoted into the main Red Bull team, including Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo and Isack Hadjar.

McLaren CEO Brown has been pretty vocal in recent years about the way in which the two teams operate, hinting that the sharing of any data, personnel or resources between teams should not be allowed in F1.

The issue was particularly in focus at the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, when Ricciardo - then racing for the sister team - put in the fastest lap of the race in order to take a world championship point away from Lando Norris and help the title cause of Red Bull's Verstappen.

Championship points for fastest laps have since been done away with by F1, but now Brown has used this example to once again suggest that the A/B team model adopted by Red Bull and Racing Bulls could compromise sporting integrity.

"I've been saying for 10 years, I don't like co-ownership," Brown told Sky Sports F1. "I don't like AB teams. I think it runs a high risk of compromising the sporting integrity of the sport. We've seen fastest laps from one team. You know, Daniel Ricardo take a point away from McLaren to help Max and Red Bull.

"We've seen IP transfer from one team to another. We've seen staff move from one team to another overnight where I have to wait till 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 that's a cost cap advantage.

"Can you imagine in the Premier League, two teams being owned by the same final game of the year, the team that loses is relegated. The team that wins, they don't need the win. And all of a sudden, the team, you know, how fair is that for sport?

"So, I think co-ownership AB teams are not a healthy place for us to be as a sport. I think it's being managed now. We've seen incidents and we need to do away with it, not increase it."

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Driver talent unearthed by Racing Bulls

While the success stories of Vettel, Verstappen and Ricciardo are well documented, there are also a plethora of other drivers from Red Bull's sister team who have gone on to make a name for themselves in other teams.

Carlos Sainz has never raced with the main Red Bull team, but was Verstappen's team-mate at Toro Rosso in 2015 and for four races in 2016.

Having foreseen that his opportunities to break into the main team may be limited by the presence of Verstappen, Sainz opted to move to Renault, before also driving with McLaren, Ferrari and Williams.

The four-time grand prix winner is one of the most respected drivers on the F1 grid, and is arguably the one driver who Red Bull regret not giving more opportunities with their main team.

Alex Albon was given a season and a half at Red Bull after impressing with Toro Rosso, but ultimately failed to deliver and ended up at Williams, where he has forged a successful career for himself currently driving alongside Sainz.

Pierre Gasly is another driver who was demoted back down into the sister team after some poor performances in 2019 for the main outfit, but ultimately left AlphaTauri for Alpine in 2023 after it became clear that no matter how well he performed back at the sister team, he would be unlikely to replace Verstappen or Sergio Perez.

F1 Red Bull McLaren Zak Brown