F1 boss responds to calls for FIA to act against Red Bull

Red Bull

F1 boss responds to calls for FIA to act against Red Bull

Racing Bulls are a sister team of Red Bull

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Friday 29 May 2026 13:55

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An F1 boss has hit out amid reports that the FIA will start looking into what has been described as an 'unhealthy' setup at Red Bull by McLaren boss Zak Brown.

McLaren CEO Brown has been very vocal over the past few years about the A/B set up that Red Bull and Racing Bulls have, with Racing Bulls being Red Bull's 'junior team'.

Red Bull joined F1 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.

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

The sister team is often used to develop young driver talent, allowing them to prove their worth in an F1 car before making the step up to the main team if they're good enough.

This has been the path for the team's only two world champions Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, as well as drivers including Daniel Ricciardo, Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar.

Despite Brown's dislike of the A/B team setup at Red Bull, earlier this month FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem defended multi-team ownership, but also suggested the FIA will look further into it.

Ben Sulayem said that multi-team ownership could be acceptable if done for the 'right reasons.'

Now, Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane has opened up on his team's relationship with the main Red Bull outfit.

Permane previously worked for Alpine/Renault, but became Racing Bulls' team principal in 2025, when Laurent Mekies made the step up to Red Bull.

Do Racing Bulls benefit from Red Bull setup?

"Do we feel the benefit? I certainly feel the benefit of being part of the Red Bull family and coming under the Austria-Red Bull corporate projects group," said Permane, speaking to the media in Canada.

"Our relationship with Red Bull Racing is very much a customer-supplier relationship. We take some suspension from them, we take gearboxes from them, and various other components that are allowed under the technical regulations, which we follow very rigorously."

"Actually, I have to say, having worked at a team where we don’t have that relationship at all, and now with a team where we do have it, a lot of work goes into ensuring that we are respecting those rules.

"So, a lot of effort that could be put into other areas is put into ensuring that we respect those regulations. So, I don’t see any issue with the way we operate currently."

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F1 Red Bull Zak Brown Racing Bulls Alan Permane