McLaren CEO Zak Brown has expressed his concerns regarding the nature of Red Bull’s connection with their sister F1 team, AlphaTauri.
Red Bull owns both Formula One teams, and AlphaTauri is now profiting from a deeper connection with the reigning world champions.
Following a sluggish start to the season, AlphaTauri’s rebound and development toward the end of the campaign aroused questions among competing teams, despite expanding technical partnerships.
In Singapore, AlphaTauri used Red Bull’s rear suspension and improved their competitiveness significantly, moving from the bottom of the constructors’ standings to eighth by the end of the season.
Brown is adamant the relationship between Red Bull and AlphaTauri is something that needs to be reviewed.
“The million-dollar question that none of us know is how early did they [Red Bull] turn off this year’s car?” Brown told Autosport.
“We know we’ve outperformed the others in the development race, and we know we’ve closed the gap to Red Bull but what none of us know is: did Red Bull stop, and we just caught up, or were they still developing?
“Also, we have some big concerns over the alliance between AlphaTauri and Red Bull. I think that is something that needs to be addressed in the future.
“So, I still think the sport has a way to go to make sure that everyone is truly independent.”
Red Bull boss Christian Horner has rubbished suggestions that his team’s closer ties with AlphaTauri could lead to a repeat of the ‘Pink Mercedes’ controversy.
Meanwhile, F1’s governing body, the FIA, has announced it is planning fresh guidance on team collaboration rules to avoid potential breaches.
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