McLaren steps up F1 fight over team ownership

Andrea Stella has publicly intensified McLaren’s push against multi-team ownership in Formula 1, saying the championship’s status as a contest between independent constructors must be “enforced totally” after Zak Brown urged the FIA to tighten the rules.

Speaking at the Canadian Grand Prix team principals’ press conference, Stella backed Brown’s letter to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem and made clear McLaren wants the discussion to move beyond principle. Andrea Stella, McLaren team boss, said the team’s position was intended to be “constructive and healthy, but also very clear” on what he called a fundamental point: “this is a championship between independent constructors.” He added: “We believe very strongly that this principle should be enforced totally.”

Brown wrote to Ben Sulayem between the Miami and Canadian Grands Prix calling for future co-ownership arrangements to be banned, existing alliances to be regulated more tightly and the sport to begin “the process of unwinding those already established.” In the letter, Brown said such structures create “unintended but very real consequences” for competitive integrity.

McLaren’s argument is not aimed at one case alone. Brown said during the Chinese Grand Prix weekend that his concerns “apply to anybody and everybody,” adding: “A/B teams, co-ownership... regardless of who it is, I frown upon it. I don’t think it’s healthy for the sport.” He went further still: “I think A/B teams, we need to get away from as much as possible, as quickly as possible.”

That stance has immediate relevance for Red Bull GmbH’s ownership of both Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls, a structure that has existed since 2005, and it has gained fresh prominence as Mercedes has confirmed interest in buying the 24 per cent Alpine stake currently owned by Otro Capital.

Stella said McLaren believes there is already broad agreement inside the paddock on the underlying philosophy and that the next step is to turn that into enforceable reality. He said the point of raising the issue was that “from a practical point of view, there’s more that we should do,” so that “the fairness in the game and in the competition is fully achieved,” and so that “the true extent of the technical, sporting and financial regulations is also brought to life.”

Red Bull did not reject the principle. Laurent Mekies, Red Bull team boss and CEO, said in the same press conference: “We all want 11 teams racing independently on track.” He said Red Bull had supported steps to deliver “more and more independence from every team racing on track” and added that if more measures are needed, “we would support.”

Mekies also argued the issue goes beyond ownership alone, pointing to the wider range of links that exist in the paddock through supply relationships. He said Red Bull would back “any further step” needed to ensure that, “regardless of our strategic partnership or regardless of our ownership structure, we race independently on track.”

Alan Permane, Racing Bulls team boss, took a firmer line on the current setup, saying he sees no issue with how the Faenza-based team operates. He acknowledged benefits from being part of the Red Bull group, but described the connection to Red Bull Racing as “very much a customer-supplier relationship.” Permane said Racing Bulls takes suspension, gearboxes and other components allowed by the technical regulations and follows those rules “very rigorously.”

Permane added that operating in that environment creates extra compliance work rather than an easy advantage. Drawing on his experience in independent teams and in the current structure, he said “a lot of work goes into ensuring that we are respecting those rules,” adding: “So, I don’t see any issue with the way we operate currently.”

The dispute has now moved into the open. McLaren is no longer just arguing for closer scrutiny of future tie-ups, but for existing shared structures to be dismantled, while Red Bull says it is willing to support stronger independence measures even as it maintains its current model already meets the standard.