Ferrari have become the second team to raise concerns about Red Bull and AlphaTauri’s partnership after Prancing Horses chief Fred Vasseur called for the FIA to “police” what the reigning F1 champions are doing with their sister team.
Vasseur remains confident that the FIA will manage the co-ownership appropriately but admits he finds the situation very “strange”. “I think we have to police what the teams are doing with their junior teams, which maybe isn’t the right word,” Vasseur said last week.
“For me, it is not the right way because, for me, Toro Rosso, AlphaTauri – or Minardi, I don’t know what is the next one! It’s true what they are doing together [with Red Bull] is a strange situation with two teams owned by the same company.
“But the FIA has been able to manage it so far – and I am sure they will be able to in future.” This comes after McLaren boss Zak Brown called for a ban on common ownership of F1 teams in an indirect attack on Red Bull.
In an open letter, Brown wrote: “We should prioritise some of those rules that currently impact the impartiality between competitors. For example, most other major sports prohibit the ownership of two teams within the same league because of the obvious potential damage that it does to competition.
“It’s an unhealthy situation because it impacts decisions made both on and off the track. Whether it’s a case of having access to more data, sharing components or personnel, or even having influence over a strategic vote, it’s not in the spirit of the regulations.
“It’s important to stand up for independence, competition and fairness, and I’d like to see changes in the regulations to ensure that in future, they stop influence spreading from one team to another through strategic alliances and especially through ownership. Formula One should be true to its brand and every team, except power units, should be totally independent of each other.
“I believe Formula One fans universally believe in fairness in competition and a level playing field, and would reject any actions that compromise the true spirit of competition within Formula One. Part sharing of information, shared ownership models, and strategic alliances within the sporting fabric will only serve to undermine the fans’ belief in fair and fierce competition.”
Red Bull has owned two F1 teams since the mid-2000s. They bought Jaguar Racing in 2005 before purchasing Minardi a year later. Their sister team was initially named Toro Rosso but was renamed AlphaTauri, after Red Bull’s fashion brand, in 2021.
