20 December 2023 , 01:00
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Christian Horner has not done enough to satisfy McLaren chief Zak Brown who has "big concerns" over Red Bull's ownership of two Formula 1 teams.
The energy drink's flagship team is, of course, the Red Bull Racing outfit which dominated the grid this year. But the company also owns the soon-to-be-rebranded AlphaTauri team which has, historically, been used to blood their talented young drivers in F1.
Going forward, the teams plan to work even more closely together. The 2024 AlphaTauri car will borrow as much from the Red Bull car as the regulations allow, while there are suggestions team principal Horner may play a larger role himself across both teams.
The 50-year-old has downplayed the suggestion that there will be any wrongdoing behind the scenes. "There are some transferable components which are clearly listed within the regulations you're allowed to supply and that's what they get," he recently said of the situation.
"When you look at the car, there are quite fundamental differences between that car and a Red Bull Racing car. And arguably, there are other cars on the grid that are far closer in concept [to the RB19] than AlphaTauri is. You've only got to look at an Aston Martin, or even a McLaren. If you look around the rear suspension of a McLaren, it's very close in concept to that of our own.
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"Of course, there are certain components that we can supply, as is the case with Mercedes and Ferrari that supply current Grand Prix teams with gearboxes, suspensions and simulation tools, and wind tunnel [usage]. That is an identical relationship between the companies and, of course, it is then down to them how they use those tools."
The FIA has also not discovered anything untoward during regular compliance checks. But that is not enough to satisfy McLaren chief executive Brown, who is not convinced that common ownership should be allowed at all.
"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," he told Motorsport.com. "So, I still think the sport has a way to go to make sure that everyone is truly independent.
"It is two teams with common ownership, which you wouldn't have in other sports. [It could benefit Red Bull in] a lot of different ways. There is a reason why they are moving a lot of their people from Italy [AlphaTauri's current base in Faenza].
"As Helmut [Marko, Red Bull motorsport adviser] has said, they are going to do absolutely everything they can to benefit from having two teams. I get that because that's what the rules say. But I think we need to look at the governance of the sport around technical alliances."