Red Bull backs tighter F1 team independence rules

Red Bull says it would support any further Formula 1 measures needed to prove all 11 teams race independently, even as McLaren keeps pushing for tighter restrictions on multi-team ownership and alliances.

Speaking in Montreal as scrutiny again turned to the relationship between Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls, Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing team principal, said the principle itself was not in dispute. “We all want the 11 teams to compete independently on the circuit,” he said, adding that if other stakeholders believed more steps were needed to guarantee that independence, “then we will support it.”

That stance matters because Red Bull’s ownership structure has been at the center of the latest argument. McLaren CEO Zak Brown has written to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem calling for stricter rules, then repeated the message in an open letter to fans before the Monaco Grand Prix. Brown said that, aside from power units, teams should operate “entirely independently to ensure total fairness,” arguing that technical, financial and governance alliances can blur the lines.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella reinforced that position at an FIA press conference alongside Mekies and Racing Bulls boss Alan Permane. Stella said the issue comes back to a basic principle: Formula 1 is “a championship between independent constructors.” He added: “We believe very strongly that this principle should be enforced totally.”

Red Bull’s response, though, is not a concession on its two-team model. Mekies made clear the debate should not be reduced to ownership alone and did not suggest any rethink over Racing Bulls. Instead, he argued that the pitlane is already built on multiple forms of cooperation, from power-unit, gearbox and suspension supply to technical partnerships and partial or full shareholdings.

That wider framing shifts the argument beyond one ownership structure. If the FIA and Formula 1 do move toward stronger guarantees of independence, the discussion is now likely to center on the whole web of technical, commercial and financial links across the grid, and on how the sport defines fair competition between all 11 teams.